Matt Gaetz, Trump’s uniquely unqualified pick for attorney general, withdraws

Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), has withdrawn from consideration.

He was nominated just over a week ago. Since then, numerous details of a House investigation into alleged sexual misconduct — including a CNN report on Thursday that investigators were told Gaetz twice had sex with a 17-year-old girl — have been made public.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but posted Thursday afternoon on X that he was removing himself from consideration as attorney general because “my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

Gaetz was a startling pick, not just because of the sexual misconduct allegations that have long loomed over him. He is also a longtime Trump loyalist who could have tried to remake the Department of Justice. The department has traditionally adhered to strong norms against interference by the president; Trump and his allies have been explicit in arguing that should change. Trump has also repeatedly called for legal action against his political enemies, including promising to “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” in 2023.

Enforcing those sorts of threats would have fallen to Gaetz, had he been confirmed by the Senate.

Before being nominated to be attorney general, Gaetz received press primarily for two things. One is his longstanding feud with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who was eventually ousted in no small part because of Gaetz. The other is the aforementioned string of sexual misconduct allegations. Again, Gaetz denied these allegations, and the Justice Department dropped its investigation into them in 2023.

If Gaetz had ended up running that same department, he’d be in a uniquely powerful role. The attorney general is be tasked with overseeing all federal prosecutions, providing legal advice to the president and the Cabinet, and has the final say on any legal stance that the United States takes in court.

Of greater significance perhaps is the fact that the attorney general has enormous authority over who is prosecuted, who is allowed to get away with committing federal crimes, and who might be targeted for politically motivated prosecutions in an authoritarian administration.

Trump has repeatedly promised “retribution” against his Democratic rivals. And his fellow Republicans on the Supreme Court ruled last July that he can order the Justice Department to bring politically motivated prosecutions without consequence.

In the first Trump administration, Trump reportedly wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute his former political opponent Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, but was dissuaded from doing so by White House Counsel Don McGahn. Gaetz’s strong support for Trump, by contrast, made it seem he’d have been much less likely to resist such an order. Whether Trump’s next nominee is cut from the same loyalist cloth remains to be seen.

Gaetz has a law degree, and he did previously practice law in northwest Florida. He’s been a representative since 2017, and became known both for stunts on the House floor — like wearing a gas mask to protest masking policies during the coronavirus pandemic — as well as his staunch support for Trump.

In 2021, it was revealed that Gaetz was the subject of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

The allegations arose out of his relationship with Joel Greenberg, a former county-level tax collector who was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a federal judge in 2022. Greenberg pled guilty to a wide range of crimes, including underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, identity theft, and conspiring to defraud the federal government. Judge Gregory Presnell, who sentenced Greenberg, said he’s “never seen a defendant who has committed so many different types of crimes in such a relatively short period.”

According to CNN, Greenberg also “cooperated extensively with the Justice Department’s sex-trafficking probe into GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz.” Among other things, Greenberg reportedly told investigators that he witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. (Gaetz in 2021 issued a blanket denial of the allegations via a statement from his office, writing: “No part of the allegations against me are true.”)

As a general rule, sex offenses such as soliciting prostitution are handled by state-level prosecutors, as the Constitution only gives the federal government limited authority over sex crimes. The Justice Department can get involved, however, in narrow circumstances.

The department’s investigation into Gaetz looked into whether he had sex with this teenager and paid for her to travel with him. It is a federal crime to transport someone someone across state lines, with the intent that they engage in prostitution or “illicit sexual conduct.” The most serious violations of this statute carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

In any event, the Justice Department eventually decided not to charge Gaetz. Its reasons for declining to do so have not been made public, but the lack of charges does not necessarily clear him of the allegations.

There was also a separate House ethics investigation into Gaetz. A report on that investigation’s findings was nearly complete when Gaetz resigned from the House upon being nominated for attorney general. That report hasn’t been made public, though reporters have begun to obtain information gathered by House investigators.

Besides CNN’s reporting on allegations of sexual encounters with a minor, other outlets, have reported that investigators were told Gaetz compensated a number of women for sex. The House is reportedly in possession of photos taken during times two women who said they were paid for sex were in Gaetz’s company. Other witnesses called by the ethics committee said they were paid to attend parties that Gaetz also attended, where attendees used drugs and had sex. Again, Gaetz has denied any misconduct.

Reports also emerged that some Republican senators were growing concerned by these allegations, raising questions of whether Gaetz could get the votes needed for confirmation. Also complicating matters was Gaetz’s generally poor reputation on Capitol Hill. In 2023, for example, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said that “there’s a reason why no one in the [Republican] conference defended” Gaetz after seeing some of the evidence against him.

As New York Times columnist Ezra Klein writes, Trump’s decision to nominate Gaetz should be read as an effort to gauge whether Republican senators will permit him to take absurd and dangerous actions. “These aren’t just appointments,” Klein writes of Gaetz and Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, who also faces sexual misconduct allegations, “They’re loyalty tests.”

Depending on who Trump choses in Gaetz’s stead, senators may have one less test to take.

Update, November 21, 1:55 pm ET: This story was originally published on November 13 and has been updated with Gaetz withdrawing his nomination for attorney general and the circumstances leading up to it.