Matt Gaetz is trying to reassure senators anxious about the prospect of him becoming attorney general by telling them he won’t use the Justice Department to immediately seek revenge against Donald Trump’s enemies, according to a report.
The former Florida congressman, who requires Senate approval to join Trump’s Cabinet, has been making his case to senators in one-on-one meetings. “Look, I’m not going to go there and indict Liz Cheney, have storm troopers bust through the studio door at MSNBC, and arrest Anthony Fauci in my first week,” he told some senators, sources told The Bulwark.
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The reference to refraining from seeking retribution only in his “first week” as attorney general was interpreted as an “ominous disclaimer” by some, according to the report. Others reportedly asked what would happen after his first week in office, to which sources said he answered: “We’re not doing that,” adding: “We’re breaking the cycle of weaponizing DOJ.”
Aside from concerns about retribution, Gaetz’s confirmation is also being complicated by allegations of wrongdoing—including that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl—which were the subject of a yearslong investigation by the department that he’s now hoping to lead. The DOJ’s sex trafficking probe ended without charges being filed, and Gaetz has always denied wrongdoing.
“There’s no there, there,” Gaetz told Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a member of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Lee told The Bulwark.
A separate House Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations against Gaetz has also overshadowed his nomination, with Republicans on the panel on Wednesday voting against releasing their findings. The panel could yet vote to make its findings public before Gaetz’s confirmation hearing early next year when they meet again on Dec. 5.
On Wednesday, The New York Times published a chart made by federal investigators purportedly showing payments made between Gaetz and others, including two women who testified that he’d hired them for sex. A lawyer representing the women who spoke to the House Ethics Committee said one his clients told the panel that she’d seen her friend having sex with Gaetz at a 2017 party, and “her friend at that time was 17.”
Gaetz has denied the accusation. The chart did not show that Gaetz made a payment to the 17-year-old girl.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communication director, said the “purposeful leaking of classified investigative materials” is “the sort of politicized DOJ weaponization that Matt Gaetz will end.”
Cheung also noted that Gaetz was not charged with a crime as a result of the DOJ investigation and called the document leak an attempt to “smear the next attorney general.”
