Matt Gaetz, representative of Florida, is one of the most strident politicians in Washington. Provocative and anti-system, he defines himself in his brief biography of of their suits. As of this Wednesday, and against all odds (or, at least, those predictions that do not respond solely to the whim of Donald Trump), he is also the president-elect’s candidate to occupy the position of attorney general. He wants him at the head of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Although Gaetz studied law, he only has a brief experience in the private practice of law, and in that he also breaks the mold of many of those who held his position before him, a position that is traditionally assumed to have a certain independence. of the tenant of the White House.
If the US Senate confirms him – something that cannot be taken for granted given that the Republicans have the majority and in view of the first reactions of some members of the party in the upper house – his first mission will be to free Trump from the two federal criminal proceedings against him. He will also surely be able to navigate his own troubles: there is an investigation by the House of Representatives Ethics Committee against Gaetz, 42, for “inappropriate sexual conduct” and drug use, for having shared inconvenient images or videos with others members of Congress and because he used campaign money for himself or accepted gifts that contravened the institution’s rules.
The Department of Justice also initiated proceedings against him for an alleged crime of abuse of a minor. The case against Gaetz, who denies all such allegations, was closed shortly after it was opened. The investigation has its origins in his relationship with a former friend of the congressman, a Treasury official named Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg also admitted to introducing her to other “adult men.”
A year ago that seems more like a century, Gaetz multiplied his fame on Capitol Hill by placing himself in the eye of the political storm when he led, with Trump’s blessing, the motion of no confidence that led to the dismissal of Kevin McCarthy as president of the House of Representatives. During those October days he showed himself as a politician willing to fight, a staunch Trumpist guided by a desire to clean up the “swamp,” a term used by critics of Washington to define a city they consider rotten by corruption. His obsession is, almost as much as the Democrats, the RINOs (acronym for lip service Republicans). In his way of seeing the world, McCarthy, with whom he has an old rivalry, is one of those RINOs.
One of his first tasks at the helm of the DOJ will be to dismiss the special prosecutor who has been investigating Trump, Jack Smith, if he does not resign sooner, as it seems that he will end up happening. He will also be in charge of reviewing the cases of the thousand people accused and convicted of the assault on the Capitol, which Trump, who considers them “hostages” of justice, has promised to pardon. That day, more than 140 police officers were injured in the riot, and one agent and three insurgents died.
Justice reform
“Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious lawyer, trained at William & Mary Law School, who has distinguished himself in Congress by focusing on desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” the president-elect wrote this Wednesday in his network, Truth Social. “Few issues in the United States are more important than ending its partisan exploitation.” “Matt will root out systemic corruption at the DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting crime, and defending our Democracy and Constitution. We must have Honesty, Integrity and Transparency in the DOJ. Under Matt’s leadership, all Americans will once again feel proud of the DOJ,” Trump added in another message, who has insistently and without evidence denounced that his troubles with the law are due to “political persecution” ordered by President Joe Biden. .
The news of Gaetz’s appointment fell like a bomb on Capitol Hill at the end of one of the busiest days in recent memory. Congressmen returned on Tuesday after a weeks-long break forced by the election campaign. On Wednesday morning, Trump returned to the place that thousands of his supporters desecrated shortly before the still president left the White House to meet with members of his party in the House of Representatives, who, hours later, voted to renew his confidence in Mike Johnson, the leader of a majority that is taken for granted although the vote count for the November 5 elections has not yet finished.
In the meantime, Senate Republicans chose their new boss: John Thune. He replaces Mitch McConnell, who has led the parliamentary group in the upper house since 2006. Thune’s proclamation represents a moderate setback to Trump’s plans, which he will enjoy when he takes office in an extremely favorable scenario, with control of the presidency and the two Chambers. The new tenant of the White House also wanted the guarantee from the leader of the Republicans in the Senate that they will allow him to carry out his appointments without having to vote on them. Thune has so far given no signs that he is going to go through that hoop.
After Gaetz’s appointment became known, several Republican senators did not bother to hide from journalists their surprise and, in some cases, also their disgust at the news. The formation of Trump’s team began last week with the announcement that Susie Wiles would be his chief of staff. That signing – and others, such as those of Marco Rubio (Secretary of State) or Mike Waltz (National Security Advisor) – gave rise to thinking that the new president was playing the card of a certain moderation and common sense, even though the main virtue of those chosen was loyalty to his figure. Over the days, that image has proven to be a mirage: appointments such as those of Gaetz or that of Pete Hegseth, a Fox News presenter at the head of the Department of Defense, have returned to Washington the memory of the most unpredictable Trump.
In his performance as representative for Florida, Gaetz has used a rhetoric, between populist and anti-system, that he began to carve in his youth, in the times of the Tea Party, a movement at the beginning of the last decade that today can be seen as the canary in the mine of the radicalization of a portion of the Republican Party, before the MAGA movement came along and did the rest. He has been a congressman since 2017. The son of a well-known politician, he was a state parliamentarian in the capital of Florida, Tallahassee, before landing in Washington, where he has been characterized by seeking the spotlight with the same determination as the fight. He received criticism for inviting a Holocaust denier to Congress and has defended baseless theories that the 2020 election was stolen.
