Trump’s Nomination of Matt Gaetz Is a Sign of Dark Intentions

Photo: Mike Segar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Matt Gaetz, United States attorney general. It’s almost an oxymoron.

This is a crazy pick. This is a dangerous pick. This is a pick that warns of dark intentions.

Let’s get specific. We can assess any attorney-general candidate on two core criteria: qualifications and independence.

Gaetz is aggressively unqualified. The man has never been a prosecutor. He has no idea what it means to stand up in court and represent the United States. He has no clue what it means to investigate, indict, and convict another human being. He’s never been in a position to deprive another human being of his liberty, and he has no idea how that feels. He has no sense of prosecutorial judgment or discretion. That’s not his fault; he’s simply never done the job.

Nor is Gaetz independent by any definition of the term. He is “an outspoken conservative firebrand” and “a tireless defender of President Trump.” He has earned nicknames such as the “Trumpiest Congressman in Trump’s Washington” and “the Trumpiest Congressman,” both of which “he considers badges of honor.” No doubt, he’s proud of it all — each of the preceding quotations in this paragraph are pulled verbatim from Gaetz’s own congressional website.

The stakes here are unimaginably high. The attorney general sits atop the United States Justice Department. That means he’s in charge of over 115,000 employees, including federal prosecutors, civil lawyers, law-enforcement officials. He handles a $37 billion annual budget. The AG oversees all 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices; separate criminal investigative divisions handling cases on civil rights, national security, and public integrity; the solicitor general, who handles all Supreme Court litigation for the federal government; the FBI, DEA, and ATF; the Bureau of Prisons; and the U.S. Marshals. It’s a big job that carries unimaginable power.

Regular readers of this column know that I don’t buy into doomsday scenarios, including those that relate to Trump’s second term. But the impending nomination of Gaetz as the nation’s top law-enforcement official is about as dark and clear as harbingers get. Gaetz prides himself on political attack-dog tactics, on unquestioningly defending Trump, and on settling scores (or perceived scores) against his political opponents. And there will be precious few guardrails in place to check his power. Republican majorities will run the Senate and (probably) the House, so don’t expect meaningful congressional oversight. There’s little the judiciary can do to rein in an investigation either, though the courts play a larger role if (and hopefully not when) any of this turns into politically driven indictments.

Back in 2021, I wrote a book called Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department. It’s pretty much all right there in the title. Barr was a dreadful attorney general. But right now, I’d take Barr as AG in half a second. His tenure was defined by dishonesty and political manipulation to protect Trump and his political allies. But Barr at least understood the Justice Department; he had served as AG in the early 1990s and in other senior Justice Department positions. And he had a line he would not cross. While Barr used his power unabashedly to defend Trump, he generally would not use the department as an offensive weapon to go after political adversaries — despite Trump’s repeated calls for him to do so. Gaetz promises to blow right past that line.

There’s a tradition at the Justice Department that new prosecutors are handed a copy of a legendary speech delivered by Attorney General Robert Jackson in 1940. Jackson talked about the extraordinary power that prosecutors hold over life, liberty, and property. “While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst,” he told the assembled prosecutors. That rings true today, over 80 years later. Jackson’s speech usually is cited as an inspirational text. It now threatens to become a prescient warning.

This article will also appear in the free CAFE Brief newsletter. You can find more analysis of law and politics from Elie Honig, Preet Bharara, Joyce Vance, and other CAFE contributors at cafe.com.