Donald Trump Is Dead Serious About Getting Matt Gaetz to DOJ

The president-elect wants the fight, believing the congressman will investigate the investigators and MAGAfy the Justice Department.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on April 30, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

MATT GAETZ LABELS HIMSELF a “firebrand.” Now he’s ready to torch the Department of Justice, the agency Donald Trump has tapped him to lead.

Of all the lawyers Trump interviewed to be his next attorney general, the Florida congressman checked the most boxes. Gaetz is a loyal, longtime adviser, an acid-tongued debate champ, and—perhaps most important to the oft-investigated former and future president—an aggrieved target of the feds. Gaetz was the subject of a federal sex-crime probe that he survived and labeled a Deep State fix.

As Trump began formulating the type of individual he wanted atop the DOJ, he was drawn to those attributes and to the idea that Gaetz would help him investigate the investigators.

“The hunters have become the hunted,” a Gaetz confidant said. “This is not your grandfather’s party. This is MAGA.”

Not everyone in D.C. shares the enthusiasm. The announcement of Gaetz’s nomination may have thrilled MAGA, but it shocked official Washington, coming on the heels of a brazen series of selections by Trump for other cabinet posts. The congressman’s firebrand label is well deserved. He has been a bombastic member of the House, keen to throw sharp elbows at his foes, defend Trump in dramatic ways and pick fights within his own party’s tent. 

That attitude has won him many enemies on the Hill. But it was also fundamental to Trump’s decision to choose him for the AG slot, according to a Trump adviser familiar with the transition process. 

“None of the attorneys had what Trump wants, and they didn’t talk like Gaetz,” the adviser said. “Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ fuckin’ heads.’”

In Trump’s mind, there is no more important post than attorney general, both because of the sheer number of federal investigations and indictments he’s weathered since leaving office and his conviction that he was let down by feckless or non-loyal AGs when he served as president. In choosing Gaetz, Trump signaled just how much he trusts the 42-year-old from Florida’s 1st Congressional District at the western edge of the state’s panhandle.

The pick was so audacious that it prompted immediate speculation that Gaetz was actually playing the role of a sacrificial lamb—there to give Republican senators a nominee to tank so that they would have cover to vote yes on other cabinet selections, themselves a mix of respected lawmakers, television personalities, ideological apostates and political allies.

But those familiar with Trump’s thinking say he’s deadly serious about getting Gaetz in at DOJ. He has faith in Gaetz’s abilities to think through legal and political problems strategically. And both men have hinted that they will try and work around the Senate should confirmation there become too big a hurdle. Sources familiar with the matter say that Gaetz was among the Trump advisers who advocated for him to pressure those vying to be Senate majority leader into agreeing to allow recess appointments for Trump’s picks.

Trump, those advisers said, believes Gaetz will excel at his Senate confirmation hearings because he was baptized by fire during the two-year investigation into whether, in 2017, he paid for sex with a 17-year-old who went on to become a hardcore pornography performer. Gaetz denied the charges and the investigation fizzled out for lack of evidence. But it gave way to a House Ethics Committee investigation, which Gaetz labeled “Soviet.”

In what allies were framing as a measure of his commitment to getting confirmed, Gaetz alerted Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday that he was resigning from his House seat immediately. But that decision, too, was shrouded in controversy. The House Ethics Committee was set to vote on releasing its report into Gaetz’s conduct, and his resignation effectively puts an end to it. It’s unclear if the committee could still vote to release its findings. But should Gaetz appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation hearings, the probe will likely become fodder, making it both must-watch television and not safe for work.

“At the very least, the Senate hearings are gonna be amazing TV,” said a former Trump White House adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity because he opposed the Gaetz pick. “I’m not a fan. I don’t see the win.”

The reaction to the Gaetz nomination inside the Justice Department was one of shellshock. “Holy fucking shit,” one government lawyer wrote The Bulwark. “And, what the fuck!”  

On the Hill it was not much more subdued. Republican lawmakers were both caught off guard and dumbfounded. Several GOP Senators express outright skepticism about the prospects of a confirmation.

“I was shocked by the announcement,” said Susan Collins (R-Maine). “This shows why the advice and consent process is so important. And I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing. Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whoever he wishes, but I’m certain that there will be a lot of questions.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said Gaetz “will have his work cut out for him” and, when asked about the alleged sex crimes, joked: “Well, that might come up.”  Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said it was “concerning” to him, noting that “FBI and background checks are pretty intense for an attorney general.” And an old clip of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) quickly resurfaced in which he noted that, in the House, Gaetz would show colleagues videos “of the girls that he had slept with” and “brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”

But in the Trump era, immediate shock and awe often has a way of morphing into awkwardly-rationalized acceptance by Republicans. And even the once tough-talking Mullin signaled on Wednesday afternoon that he’d be at least open to voting for Gaetz.

“I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one,” Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “He has to answer those questions. And hopefully, he‘s able to answer the questions right. If he can, then we’ll go through the confirmation process.”

Gaetz will have to make nice with senators he’s previously tormented. The congressman once accused Mullin of “cashing in on public office” and described Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) as “low energy establishment.” On Wednesday, Tillis expressed no ill will, saying, “I’m all about counting votes, and I would think he’s probably got his work cut out for him.”

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FLORIDA STATE REP. ALEX ANDRADE, a Gaetz ally who took his seat when he was elected to Congress in 2016, said he expects Gaetz would use the post of AG to expose more about the Russia investigation of Trump in 2016 and 2017 as well as the federal indictments of Trump for mishandling classified documents and his role in the January 6th Capitol riot. 

“Trump likes raw talent and Matt has that in spades. And he’s loyal and Trump has been burned, so this is a perfect fit for Trump,” Andrade, a Republican, said. “After the Deep State failures Trump suffered through, I’m surprised he didn’t think of this earlier.”

While Trump served as president, Gaetz acted as his unofficial eyes and ears in Congress. During this campaign, he helped him prepare for his debates. Gaetz is close to Trump campaign manager and incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Previously, the two worked closely together and helped rescue Ron DeSantis’s floundering 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Gaetz is also a frequent presence at Mar-a-Lago events, where he met his wife, Ginger Luckey, the sister of virtual-reality pioneer Palmer Luckey.

“The parade of horrible headlines would have destroyed anybody else,” said a friend, who pointed out Gaetz stayed in public office, repeatedly winning reelection to his North Florida congressional seat. While serving in Congress, Gaetz strategically plotted the demise of his hated rival Kevin McCarthy by holding his speakership hostage until McCarthy relented to a procedural move that Gaetz would later use to oust him.

Never one to let a grudge go, Gaetz despised McCarthy so much that he confronted him at the Republican National Convention this summer, mocking him for working the floor while the VIPs prepared for their time on stage. Trump wasn’t a fan of Gaetz’s decision to oust McCarthy, but the former president stayed out of it, partly out of respect for Gaetz’s power play.

“Gaetz is a tough son of a bitch. He’s my son of a bitch,” Trump recently told a confidant.

If he’s confirmed, Gaetz would be the first attorney general to be investigated by the Justice Department for sex crimes. The probe grew out of a parallel investigation into his former friend Joel Greenberg, who was elected tax collector of Seminole County in Central Florida in 2016. 

Gaetz met his previous girlfriend through Greenberg, who was an avid drug user who frequently procured young women for sex through the dating site SeekingArrangement, where Greenberg met the 17-year-old at the center of the sex-trafficking case. 

Greenberg engaged in a wide array of crimes, including an attempt to frame a political rival as a pedophile. He was subsequently indicted three more times for other crimes, including fraud and identity theft. After Gaetz refused to help him get a federal pardon from Trump, Greenberg attempted to implicate Gaetz in the sex trafficking case, prompting the FBI to seize Gaetz’s cellphone in December of 2020.

Gaetz accused the Justice Department of complicity in a “Deep State coverup” after two men got wind of the then-secret investigation in 2021 and tried to extort as much as $25 million from his wealthy family in return for using their federal contacts to make the probe go away. Only one man, a local developer, was indicted and pleaded guilty in the scheme. Gaetz frequently complained that the other suspect—a former U.S. Air Force Intelligence officer—was never charged.

The Department of Justice acknowledged in September 2022 that it had insufficient evidence to indict the congressman. The alleged victim recently threatened to sue Gaetz as well as the person who introduced him to Greenberg—former state lawmaker Chris Dorworth—for sexual abuse. But she agreed to drop her demand after Dorworth sued (although his lawsuit was grist for a fresh round of bad headlines for Gaetz). 

Dorworth’s lawyer in the criminal case involving Gaetz, Richard Hornsby, said the investigation looked politically motivated, to a degree.

“There was clearly pressure from outside forces against Gaetz. The Justice Department obviously didn’t like how outspoken and brash Gaetz was,” Hornsby said. “But he was vindicated and now the shoe might be on the other foot.”

Joe Perticone and Sam Stein contributed reporting.

— This story has been corrected to reflect the name of the Florida county where Joel Greenberg served as tax collector. It is Seminole County.