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

What’s crazier than (potentially) putting notorious anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the nation’s health? Nominating GOP congressman Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general of the United States, which Donald Trump did on Wednesday. And no, that is not the set up to a joke about Trump’s second-term advisers; it is something that actually happened.

That’s right: Just over a week after winning reelection, Trump announced that Gaetz, who appears to have practiced law for only a few years in between graduating law school in 2007 and launching his political career in 2010, may serve as the most powerful attorney in America come January 20, 2025. “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” he continued. Gaetz, a Trump loyalist who revealed in his memoir that he has answered calls from the former president “in the throes of passion,” responded to Trump’s remarks: “It will be an honor.”

”But wait,” you might say, ”Wasn’t Gaetz himself under investigation by the Justice Department at one point, and currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee?” And the answer is yes. Yes, he is.

Per CNN:

The selection sets up the potential for a provocative confirmation process. If confirmed, Gaetz would take over the nation’s top law enforcement agency—the same one that pursued a yearslong sex-crimes investigation into the congressman. The Justice Department ultimately decided last year not to pursue criminal charges against him.

The congressman remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sexual misconduct, with the bipartisan committee saying in a rare statement in June that some of the allegations against Gaetz “merit continued review.” Those allegations include that Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” the committee said at the time. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, including ever having sex with a minor or paying for sex.

As a sign of just how wild Gaetz is as a pick for AG, even his fellow Republicans appear to be in no rush to endorse him for the job. Republican representative Don Bacon told CNN of the news, “I got really no good comment.” Texas GOP senator John Cornyn, senior member on the Judiciary Committee, told the outlet, “We’ll do our job as the Senate, do our advise-and-consent function. So, we’ll take that one day at a time.” Asked about the House Ethics investigation into Gaetz, Cornyn responded: “I’m sure that will come up.”