Trump Picks Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, and Yes, He’s Serious

What’s crazier than (doubtlessly) placing infamous anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in command of the nation’s well being? Nominating GOP congressman Matt Gaetz to function legal professional basic of america, which Donald Trump did on Wednesday. And no, that’s not the set as much as a joke about Trump’s second-term advisers; it’s one thing that really occurred.

That’s proper: Simply over per week after successful reelection, Trump announced that Gaetz, who seems to have practiced regulation for just a few years in between graduating regulation faculty in 2007 and launching his political profession in 2010, might function probably the most highly effective legal professional in America come January 20, 2025. “Few points in America are extra necessary than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Reality Social. “Matt will finish Weaponized Authorities, defend our Borders, dismantle Legal Organizations and restore Individuals’ badly-shattered Religion and Confidence within the Justice Division,” he continued. Gaetz, a Trump loyalist who revealed in his memoir that he has answered calls from the previous president “within the throes of ardour,” responded to Trump’s remarks: “Will probably be an honor.”

”However wait,” you may say, ”Wasn’t Gaetz himself beneath investigation by the Justice Division at one level, and presently being investigated by the Home Ethics Committee?” And the reply is sure. Sure, he’s.

Per CNN:

The choice units up the potential for a provocative affirmation course of. If confirmed, Gaetz would take over the nation’s high regulation enforcement company—the identical one which pursued a yearslong sex-crimes investigation into the congressman. The Justice Division in the end determined final yr to not pursue felony expenses in opposition to him.

The congressman stays beneath investigation by the Home Ethics Committee for sexual misconduct, with the bipartisan committee saying in a uncommon assertion in June that among the allegations in opposition to Gaetz “benefit continued assessment.” These allegations embody that Gaetz might have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper presents, disbursed particular privileges and favors to people with whom he had a private relationship, and sought to impede authorities investigations of his conduct,” the committee mentioned on the time. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, together with ever having intercourse with a minor or paying for intercourse.

As an indication of simply how wild Gaetz is as a decide for AG, even his fellow Republicans seem like in no rush to endorse him for the job. Republican consultant Don Bacon told CNN of the information, “I received actually no good remark.” Texas GOP senator John Cornyn, senior member on the Judiciary Committee, instructed the outlet, “We’ll do our job because the Senate, do our advise-and-consent perform. So, we’ll take that in the future at a time.” Requested in regards to the Home Ethics investigation into Gaetz, Cornyn responded: “I’m positive that can come up.”