Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
- Trump said on Wednesday that he will nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as US Attorney General.
- But there's reason to believe his confirmation will be difficult.
- Gaetz spearheaded the ouster of Kevin McCarthy and faces an ongoing ethics probe.
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would nominate Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as United States Attorney General.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Gaetz would "root out the systemic corruption" at the Department of Justice.
Gaetz quickly replied on X: "It will be an honor to serve as President Trump's Attorney General!"
Hours after the announcement, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Gaetz had already resigned from Congress.
"I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter, effective immediately, of Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit," Johnson said, adding that by resigning now Congress may be able to fill Gaetz's seat by January 3.
A spokesperson for Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment.
The Attorney General is the country's top law enforcement official overseeing the Department of Justice and serving as a key legal advisor to the president.
Gaetz's appointment will have to be confirmed by the US Senate, and there are plenty of reasons to believe it will be controversial. The Wednesday announcement evidently caught Republican lawmakers by surprise.
"Are you shittin' me?" GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho told HuffPost reporter Jonathan Nicholson.
Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan wrote on X that Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa was stood in front of reporters "stonefaced" in response to repeated questions about the Gaetz nomination.
GOP Rep. Max Miller told CNN, "I don't think Matt cares if he gets confirmed or not. Everybody's talking about him and that what he likes the most."
The congressman said that Gaetz will never get confirmed and called the Florida representative a "guy who is literally worse than the gum on the bottom of my shoe."
Republican Arksans Sen. Lisa Murkowski told MSNBC that Gaetz's nomination was "not on my bingo card."
"I don't think it's a serious nomination for the attorney general," she said. "We need to have a serious attorney general and I'm looking forward to the opporutnity to consider somebody that is serious.
Gaetz has previously drawn backlash from fellow Republicans over his role in spearheading the ousting of Kevin McCarthy from the speakership last year, which led to weeks of chaos in the lower chamber.
He is also likely to face renewed questions over sex-trafficking allegations, which arose after the Department of Justice opened an investigation into Gaetz in April 2021. Though the agency ultimately decline to pursue charges, the Florida congressman has continued to face a probe from the House Ethics Committee.
Multiple sources familiar with the probe told Punchbowl News that Gaetz's resignation came two days before the committee was about to vote on the release of a "highly damaging" report on its investigation.
Gaetz's office did not respond to BI's request for comment on the report.
A staunch Trump loyalist, Gaetz has been a relatively unusual figure in Washington.
He's expressed admiration for Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, telling NOTUS earlier this year that he hopes "her work continues in the Trump administration." He also supports banning lawmakers from trading stocks and has touted his agreement with Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the issue.