United States President-elect Donald Trump’s Wednesday nomination of Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz for attorney general has generated a stir on both sides of the political aisle.
The role doubles as the country’s top prosecutor and the head of the Department of Justice. As attorney general, Gaetz would also oversee agencies like the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI).
Trump announced the nomination in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. He cited Gaetz’s background as a lawyer and member of the House Judiciary Committee.
The president-elect, who has verbally attacked the Justice Department for bringing two federal cases against him, said Gaetz would root out “systemic corruption” in the department and return it “to its true mission of fighting crime and upholding our democracy and constitution”.
Gaetz, who has faced his own string of investigations for alleged improper and illegal behaviour, has caused waves during his time in the House and generated some animosity among his congressional colleagues, even within his own party. As a result, there have been more than a few raised eyebrows at his nomination, with some Republicans saying this is not a “serious” move.
Gaetz will have to pass a Senate confirmation hearing in the upcoming Congress before he can be confirmed as attorney general, a date for which has yet to be set.
Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the upcoming formation but a split in opinions about Gaetz could hobble his chances – just four “no” votes from Republicans, along with united Democrat opposition, would result in the nomination being rejected.
Here’s what we know about Gaetz and why he is such a controversial choice for attorney general in the US:
Who is Matt Gaetz?
Gaetz, 42, was until this week a member of the US House of Representatives representing Florida.
He has been in the position since 2017 but resigned on Wednesday following his nomination for attorney general. He represented Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and parts of Walton counties.
The politician earned a degree from Virginia’s William and Mary Law School in 2007 and briefly engaged in private practice before entering politics. He was following in the footsteps of his father, Don Gaetz, who was in the Florida state senate from 2006 to 2016 and will return as a senator next year, following the 2024 general elections.
Matt Gaetz is widely regarded as a far-right ideologist. In 2021, he posted an endorsement of the Great Replacement Theory on the social media channel, X.
The conspiracy theory is peddled by white American nationalists and falsely claims that Democrats are deliberately replacing white people with non-whites through mass migration. Gaetz’s tweet was still appearing on the social media platform on Thursday morning.
In 2018, he invited right-wing Holocaust denier Charles “Chuck” Johnson to Trump’s State of the Union Address as a guest of Florida. Gaetz has also called abortion rights protesters “ugly”.
Reacting to his nomination on Wednesday, Gaetz said in an X post that “it would be an honor to serve” as attorney general.
What criminal investigations has Gaetz been a subject of?
The Justice Department launched a federal sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz that began in early 2021, examining whether Gaetz and an associate, Joel Greenberg, paid or gave gifts to underage girls and escorts in exchange for sex with themselves and other men while on a trip to the Bahamas.
In the same investigation, department prosecutors were also looking into whether Gaetz and other associates tried to obtain government jobs for some of the women.
Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in all the allegations. In a statement to the US cable news channel CNN at the start of the Department of Justice probe, he claimed the accusations were part of an “extortion plot” and that “no part of the allegations against me are true”.
“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organised criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name,” Gaetz claimed.
Greenberg, a fellow Republican politician from Florida, later pled guilty to sex trafficking of a minor and was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in prison. However, Gaetz said in a statement in February 2023 that the DOJ had ended the investigation against him and was not pressing charges.
What else is Gaetz under investigation for and by who?
Separately, Gaetz has been under investigation since 2021 by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee over allegations that he was involved in the trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. It is unclear if this is the same as the case the DOJ investigated.
The committee said earlier this year that Gaetz was also being investigated over allegations of illicit drug use, accepting “improper” gifts as a lawmaker and obstructing a government investigation.
The committee was preparing to vote to release a “highly critical report” about Gaetz on Friday, according to The New York Times earlier this week, which cited an anonymous Republican official.
However, with his resignation, the House no longer has jurisdiction to continue its probe.
The politician was repeatedly combative during questioning by the committee at hearings in 2023 and 2024, and delayed the House investigation for several months, the official told the Times, adding that the report could not be released earlier because of House rules forbidding the exposure of negative reports about lawmakers up for elections close to voting.
How close is Gaetz to Donald Trump?
Gaetz is a close ally of Trump’s and has appeared frequently on TV programmes to defend the now-president-elect.
Like Trump, he supports stronger borders and is opposed to tighter restrictions on gun ownership.
In the House, Gaetz fiercely criticised the Justice Department’s criminal charges against Trump, which related to the former president’s handling of classified information and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Gaetz also criticised a special probe regarding alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election in Trump’s favour. A Senate panel in 2020 found that Russia did interfere and detailed how Trump’s close associates were in touch with Kremlin contacts.
After Trump failed to win the 2020 election, Gaetz, along with fellow Republican hardliner Marjorie Taylor Greene, went on “America First rally” roadshows. They asked crowds in Florida, “Who is your president?” and the supporters shouted back, “Trump!”
When Trump stood trial for paying hush money to adult movie star Stormy Daniels, Gaetz travelled to New York to support him.
According to The Associated Press, which cited a former White House aide, Gaetz preemptively sought a presidential pardon for the Justice Department’s investigation before Trump left office in January 2021.
Gaetz’s Wednesday nomination is seen by political analysts as a reward for his support for Trump.
What do fellow Republicans think of Gaetz?
Gaetz’s combative style means he has been treated as a pariah in the House, even by members of the Republican Party. He is part of the Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican representatives loyal to Trump and considered to be the most conservative and furthest to the right within the party.
The two investigations on him have shadowed his time in Congress. Gaetz’s lead role in moving the motion that removed former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year also won him some enemies.
“I was shocked at the nomination,” Republican Senator Susan Collins told reporters on Wednesday. “Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but this is why the Senate’s advice and consent process is so important. I’m sure there will be many, many questions raised at Mr Gaetz’s hearing if, in fact, the nomination goes forward.”
Liza Murkowski, a Republican senator, also told reporters that she believed Gaetz was “not a serious candidate”.
However, Gaetz’s allies in the House have defended the lawmaker. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a fellow Florida Republican, told reporters on Wednesday that while many would try to “smear him”, but “the evidence will speak for itself”.
What are the implications of his new role?
In a twist, Gaetz would be set to head up the Department of Justice, the same institution that has come after both him and Trump.
Trump, in his nomination statement, said Gaetz would “reform” the DOJ and end the “weaponisation of the Justice system”.
Hours before that announcement, Gaetz posted on X that he was in support of a “secure southern border”, referring to tighter controls on the US-Mexico border that many migrants use to enter the country.
He also advocated less expensive “single-subject spending bills” in the House, rather than lumped-together packages he has described as “chaotic”.
Gaetz also said he was in support of US drilling and selling more oil. That’s a likely pointer to possible legislative support that will favour oil and gas industries which are accused of bearing responsibility for the polluting fossils that are largely to blame for climate change, experts say.
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