© Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty ImagesRepublican Representative Matt Gaetz R-Fla.
Gaetz has submitted his resignation from Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed at a news conference Wednesday evening. The resignation will not take effect until it is announced on the House floor.
Trump, in his Truth Social post announcing Gaetz's selection, wrote that the 42-year-old lawmaker "has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice."
Gaetz replied on X: "It will be an honor to serve as President Trump's Attorney General!"
The selection is the clearest example yet of how Trump, having sworn off many of his former staffers as "RINOs" — Republicans in Name Only — or enemies of him and his MAGA agenda, is making loyalty a key qualification for his second administration.
If the Senate confirms him, Gaetz will succeed Attorney General Merrick Garland, who led the Department of Justice as it conducted a sex-trafficking investigation of the congressman. The DOJ ultimately declined to charge Gaetz.
Gaetz has been the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether he engaged in sexual misconduct or illicit drug use.
But Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that "the House Ethics Committee would have no further jurisdiction over the person, no further authority over them" if they were no longer in Congress.
House Ethics Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters earlier Wednesday,
"If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position with the administration as the Attorney General, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point."Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing, in September said that he would no longer voluntarily participate in the panel's probe. Punchbowl News reported Wednesday that his resignation came just two days before the panel was set to vote on releasing a report on its probe.
The lawmaker, who has carved out a reputation as a staunch and vocal Trump loyalist, has aggressively criticized the DOJ investigation and prosecution of the president-elect by special counsel Jack Smith.
In October 2023, Gaetz filed the original motion to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, his fellow Republican. A band of eight Republicans led by Gaetz would ultimately join with all House Democrats in removing McCarthy as speaker, plunging the GOP conference into chaos.
Gaetz was traveling with Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and others Wednesday during the president-elect's first trip to Washington, D.C., since defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, NBC News reported.
Trump's selection of Gaetz came as a major surprise even to his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Just a day earlier, Johnson, whose projected majority had already been slimmed after Trump tapped GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz to join his incoming administration, said, "I don't expect that we will have more members leaving."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Punchbowl News she was "shocked" by Gaetz's selection. Collins told the news outlet:
"This is why the Senate's advise and consent process is so important. I'm sure that there will be many, many questions raised at Mr. Gaetz's hearing."Asked by a HuffPost reporter whether Gaetz has the character to be attorney general, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, replied, "Are you s------- me?"
Reader Comments
Good Optics .
"Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio said Gaetz will never get confirmed, saying he’s “a guy who is literally worse than the gum on the bottom of my shoe.”
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concerning "Miller's voting record"....I have no idea, but from what i've read he's a vocal Trump supporter who'd been given a position during his last time in office
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What can you tell by that? The deep state doesn't want them around. We will see.
MSM should stick to reporting the news not editorializing and slandering !
Canada's Liberal/Globalist/NWO bias is on display in every major media outlet because Turdeau pays them for their 'flattering' coverage of his wet dreams.
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Gaetz likes what he does, so I expect him to be unrelenting and resilient, as usual, but who knows? The stakes are really high, and the rules are dirty, but Gaetz is used to dirty pool.
Plus, we've had major domestic and global catastrophes almost monthly this last year and so, who knows what new horror this month will bring? Everything could be different by the end of the week. The world is incredibly unstable. The humans have totally lost the plot.
I have little hope and zero confidence in this circus, overall. There is simply no way in hell this stupid shit ("civilization") will avoid massive catastrophe. It hardly takes a prophet to see hell on the horizon. You have to have your head buried pretty deep to not see it coming, IMO.
I'm just glad I don't have to feel sorry for the liberals anymore. They've made it crystal clear that they are proud, lying, degenerate, perverts with no established morality, conscience, remorse, or mercy, and they like it that way. They have had nothing to say about me and my kind but "fuck you, conspiracy theorist, racist, garbage" for at least a decade.
So, I'll try not to feel too bad about what I see coming their way; vindictive and empowered conservatives with the full strength (unlike what the democrats had going) of a government that has already established and demonstrated tyrannical, neurotic, murderous, social control over it's populations here in the USA, and also worldwide. It's so grotesque it makes me wince, but whatever. Fuck you, too?
Predictably, the jack-boot is now on the other foot. I won't be surprised to see it goose-stepping and curb-stomping across the USA and beyond, like it was designed to from the beginning.
Good luck defending yourselves from Gaetz. I think he feeds off the tears of his enemies. Maybe he is Mephistopheles, here to serve the papers. IDK. This has never been my country. I was just born here to eat their shit. I'll be glad to maybe take a break from it, finally...I doubt I'll be so lucky though.
I thought he looked familiar...
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He ought put less grease in his hair I think, but hey - if that is "his style" - then go for it I reckon.
I believe he was involved in some efforts to reveal those responsible for some events occurring over the last few years, and if he had a dalliance with a 17-year old, I could give a shit assuming he remains interested in revealing those behind some events that most of us reading here at sott.net consider nefarious.
Regards,
BK