Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s attorney general pick amid sexual misconduct allegations
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration Thursday as new details emerged about old allegations of sexual misconduct.
The former Florida representative, who resigned from his seat after being nominated for the post last week, was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday pressing senators to give him a chance in confirmation hearings. But less than 24 hours later, Gaetz wrote on social media that he was bowing out.
“It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction” to the incoming Trump administration, he wrote. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle.”
Gaetz has been accused of having sex with a minor and of paying other women for sex. The Justice Department, which Gaetz stood to lead as attorney general, investigated the accusations and closed its case without charges.
Gaetz has denied the allegations, but they remain under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee. The panel voted to continue its work on Gaetz this week, though Republican members rejected an effort to release the findings of its investigation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, had said that he would oppose the release of the committee’s investigation, arguing that doing so would set a “terrible precedent” because Gaetz had already resigned his seat in Congress.
That hasn’t stopped information about the probe from coming to light. News reports in recent days indicated that the House Ethics Committee had heard testimony that Gaetz paid women for sex, including one who was 17 years old at the time.
Records obtained by the committee reportedly established that Gaetz had ultimately paid around $10,000 to two women, who testified before the ethics panel as part of the investigation.
Gaetz’s chances were murky
Republican senators, who will control the chamber when new members are sworn in this January, had been signaling that Gaetz’s confirmation would be an uphill battle since Trump nominated him last week. The GOP will narrowly control the chamber when Congress returns in the new year, and multiple Republicans had expressed reservations about elevating Gaetz as the country’s chief law enforcement official.
In a Thursday post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump thanked Gaetz for fighting to become attorney general but echoed the congressman’s claim that he would face a difficult confirmation process.
“I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,” Trump wrote. “He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”
Trump’s announcement of Gaetz as his pick for attorney general came just days after the president-elect demanded that the Senate give him the power to make recess appointments, which would effectively allow him to install political appointees in office without Senate confirmation.
It’s unclear what Gaetz, who was reelected to his House seat earlier this month, will do next. While he resigned his seat in the current 118th Congress last week and said that he did not “intend” to take the oath of office for his next term in the 119th Congress, he could still ultimately decide to be sworn into the job in January.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is charged with setting special elections in the event of a vacancy in Congress, has not yet set a date for an election to replace Gaetz, though a few Florida Republicans have already announced their intentions to seek the seat.
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 12:49 PM.