Update, Nov. 21, 1:40 p.m.: That was fast! In a post on X/Twitter, Matt Gaetz has announced that he is withdrawing from consideration to be attorney general. While the former Florida Republican representative wrote that he is stepping back because the controversy around him “was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” CNN reporter Paula Reid raised a different potential explanation:
According to CNN, a woman who was 17 at the time of a previously-reported-upon alleged sexual encounter with Gaetz in 2017—see below for more context—has testified to the House ethics committee that she in fact had “two sexual encounters” with the former congressman at a “party” that they both attended. He has denied ever having sex with a minor.
Although Gaetz resigned his seat in the House upon being nominated, he also won reelection to another term earlier this month, which means that he is eligible to re-join the chamber when its new session begins in January. He has not said whether he plans to do so.
Original post, Nov. 20, 2:17 p.m.: Since we wrote last week that Donald Trump seems to have homed in on “having been on TV” as the main qualification he’s looking for in Cabinet members, the TV appointments have continued: Pro wrestling executive Linda McMahon (wife of Vince) has been nominated for some reason to lead the Department of Education, where her job will basically be to hit the Department of Education with a chair. Dr. Oz has been selected to manage the Medicaid and Medicare programs, which means you can now use those programs to purchase “fat-busters” and “miracle cures” that don’t work. (Not really. Yet.)
Trump’s most attention-getting nomination, though, remains Matt Gaetz—the now-former representative from the Florida panhandle who has been tapped to become attorney general. (Gaetz resigned from Congress after his nomination was announced.)
Here is the deal with Gaetz, and bear in mind when you are reading that the attorney general is often referred to as the nation’s top law-enforcement official:
• In 2022, a friend and political ally of Gaetz’s named Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison for a Florida smorgasbord of crimes that included paying a minor for sex. Prosecutors alleged, specifically, that Greenberg had introduced an underage woman to other men who had sex with her. Reporting about the case surfaced allegations that Greenberg and Gaetz had both participated, in CNN’s words, in “sex parties near Orlando that featured local political figures, young women, Venmo payments, alcohol, and drugs.”
• The Department of Justice investigated Gaetz on suspicion that he had engaged in sex trafficking, i.e., arranging for and paying the women at these “parties” to have sex with the men who attended. That case was closed without charges being filed against him, reportedly because prosecutors had doubts about the credibility of the women who would have served as witnesses.
• The (Republican-controlled) House Ethics Committee, however, has continued to investigate the matter as part of a wider probe into Gaetz’s behavior. (Another member of Congress, for instance, has said that Gaetz was known for showing other representatives explicit sexual photographs on his phone on the House floor.)
• According to an attorney who represents them, two women involved in the Florida case have testified to the House committee that Gaetz paid them on a number of occasions to travel to events where they were expected to have sex with the men who were present. (The two women were older than 18 at the time.) ABC has obtained documents, which it says are in the possession of the House committee, that appear to show Gaetz making a series of payments via check and Venmo to the two women.
• The attorney also says that one of his clients testified to the House committee that in 2017, she saw Gaetz having sex with a female minor who was 17 years old at the time. According to other reporting, a civil lawsuit related to Joel Greenberg’s case includes sworn testimony given by a woman who says she had sex with Gaetz in 2017, when she was 17.
Gaetz has denied that he has ever had sex with a minor or paid women for sex.
Almost incidentally, while Gaetz does have a law degree, he has never worked as a prosecutor and has little experience practicing law; he graduated from law school in 2008 and joined the Florida state Legislature in 2010. He does serve on the House Judiciary Committee, though.
How’s this all going over in the Senate, which will have to confirm Gaetz’s appointment by majority vote, unless Trump tries some sort of end-around “adjournment” and “recess appointment” gambit that would create an instant constitutional crisis?
Well, Republicans are expected to hold 53 seats in the chamber, but even a lot of Republicans don’t care for Matt Gaetz personally and may not like the idea of running for reelection in two or four years after having put their stamp on Mr. Alleged Sex Venmo. Texas Sen. John Cornyn has suggested that senators could call witnesses identified in the House investigation to testify at Gaetz’s confirmation hearings, although the attorney representing the two women mentioned above has said that they would prefer not to testify in public. Other GOP senators have said they would like to see the House Ethics Committee’s Gaetz report, which was reportedly set to be released before he resigned his seat. (Apparently, House ethics investigations are considered closed if the member in question leaves Congress.) According to the Wall Street Journal, Gaetz is “likely short of the votes he needs to be confirmed.” Trump, nonetheless, is going full steam ahead and has been calling senators personally on Gaetz’s behalf.
What’s the upside scenario for Trump here? Isn’t there someone who doesn’t have this stuff going on who he could nominate instead—someone who would still gladly investigate Rosie O’Donnell at his behest when instructed to do so by a post on social media that was otherwise mostly about Trump-branded cryptocurrency? Yes, definitely. But Gaetz is the kind of total loyalist that Trump likes to have close to him, and as the New York Times notes, even if Gaetz is ultimately dropped, “the standard for an acceptable candidate will have shifted so much that the Senate may simply approve his other nominees,” even if they have “appalled much of Washington.” (Good phrasing. Why, I do declare, Washington is saying.) It’s a win-win scenario in Trump’s mind, probably.
Then again, nominating Gaetz might be the kind of thing that contributes to President Trump 2.0 being so instantaneously unpopular that Republican members of the House in swing districts refuse to pass the things he wants them to pass. But then again again, we are talking about a president whose most recent act in office was declining to intervene when told that a violent mob, which he had sent to the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to cancel the results of an election, was trying to kill the vice president. Why would he care about stuff like how bills become laws according to the Constitution? That is the big question that pertains to Donald Trump’s stewardship of the Department of Justice, and as of now it doesn’t have a good answer.
