Washington • Matt Gaetz, who faced a torrent of scrutiny over allegations of sex trafficking and drug use, abruptly withdrew his bid to become attorney general Thursday in the first major political setback for President-elect Donald Trump since his election this month.
Gaetz has consistently denied the allegations, but his prospective nomination ran into trouble in the Senate, where Republicans were deeply reluctant to confirm someone to run the same Justice Department that once investigated him on suspicion of sex trafficking an underage girl even though no charges were brought.
In announcing his withdrawal a day after visiting the Senate, Gaetz insisted that he had strong support among fellow Republicans. But two people with direct knowledge of Gaetz’s thinking said he had made the decision to pull out after concluding that he would not have the votes in the Senate for confirmation. The people asked for anonymity to discuss his private decision-making.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote on social media. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
He added, “I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
Trump responded with his own social media post expressing appreciation for Gaetz. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do,” the president-elect wrote. Trump did not indicate whom he might select as attorney general instead.
The collapse of Gaetz’s prospective candidacy just 16 days after the election appeared to be the earliest such failed Cabinet pick in modern history and underscored the haphazard way that Trump has gone about assembling his new administration. He picked Gaetz almost on a whim last week without extensive vetting, knowing that allegations were out there but essentially daring Senate Republicans to accept him anyway.
What remained unclear Thursday was whether Gaetz’s withdrawal would embolden Senate Republicans to challenge other contentious Cabinet choices, such as Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped for defense secretary; or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic selected for secretary of health and human services. Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault but denies it, while Kennedy has been accused of groping a family babysitter, which he has said he does not remember doing.
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill on Thursday accompanied by Vice President-elect JD Vance, still serving as a senator from Ohio, to build support for his own nomination. He rejected the allegation that he had attacked a woman at a Republican conference in Monterey, California, in 2017. A police report released Wednesday said that he had blocked a hotel room door when the woman tried to leave and sexually assaulted her.
Police did not charge him, and Hegseth has insisted the encounter was consensual, but three years later he paid her a settlement with a nondisclosure agreement. His lawyer has said last week that the woman “extorted him” and that Hegseth paid her because even false accusations would have been damaging to his career.
“As far as the media is concerned, I’ll keep this very simple,” Hegseth told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared. And that’s where I’m going to leave it.”
The storm surrounding Gaetz had drawn attention away from some of the other contested picks that otherwise might have generated more opposition. Few said much, for instance, when Trump named Todd Blanche, his own criminal defense attorney, and two other lawyers who represented him against indictments, to the top Justice Department positions below attorney general.
With Gaetz drawing the most fire, it became increasingly clear that confirmation was unlikely. Trump had privately told people that Gaetz had less than even odds of surviving the confirmation process, but he was making calls on his behalf in the hopes of shifting what the Senate would consider acceptable.
Gaetz told people close to him that after conversations with senators and members of their staff, he had concluded that there were at least four Republican senators in the next Congress who were implacably opposed to his nomination: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the newly elected John Curtis of Utah.
Collins said in a statement after Gaetz’s withdrawal that he had “put country first” and had made “the best decision that Mr. Gaetz could have made.” Murkowski declined to answer any questions about the matter.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said it was “pretty obvious” that Gaetz did not have the votes to be confirmed.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who had sparred with Gaetz previously but had not indicated whether he would vote against him, said the withdrawal recognized reality. “I think because of the reports that were coming out, it was probably a good decision,” he said.
Gaetz, who represented Florida in the House until resigning last week after being tapped by Trump, had been one of the most unpopular Republicans in the Capitol, particularly after instigating the far-right revolt that toppled Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
He stepped down from his House seat two days before the House Ethics Committee was slated to produce a report on his activities, bringing an end to the investigation since he was no longer a representative in the panel’s jurisdiction. Republicans on the committee blocked release of the report in a meeting Wednesday. Senators of both parties made clear that they were intent on seeing the report before voting on his confirmation.
Gaetz’s withdrawal came a day after The New York Times reported that federal investigators had established a set of payments that he and his associates made in connection with drug-fueled sex parties from 2017 to 2020. Two women who have testified that he hired them for sex were among those who received money from Gaetz, according to a document obtained by the Times. A lawyer for the two women said payments to them totaled around $10,000.
Another woman who was 17 at the time she attended one of the parties received a payment from a friend of Gaetz, according to the document. Federal prosecutors ultimately dropped the case against Gaetz, but their chart of payments was obtained by the ethics committee, which was investigating whether Gaetz had sex with the woman when she was underage.
Trump disregarded any concerns about the scandals in selecting Gaetz after his advisers deadlocked over other choices, including Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri; and Robert J. Giuffra Jr., a top lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell. Gaetz’s selection was pushed heavily by Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal adviser, who has helped stock his Justice Department at the top levels.
Trump seemed attracted to Gaetz as attorney general especially because of the former congressman’s willingness to blow things up. The president-elect remains deeply angry at the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute him in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and hoard classified documents. He has also indicated that he wants to use the Justice Department to go after his political adversaries.
Gaetz appeared to be in sync with this thinking. A vocal and bombastic critic of the Justice Department, Gaetz has suggested abolishing the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and even the Justice Department as a whole. He introduced legislation last year to eliminate the ATF, which regulates firearms dealers and fights gun crimes.
Gaetz’s decision to resign his House seat right away, rather than wait for confirmation, now leaves him without a position in Washington. While he was just reelected this month, he made clear in his resignation letter last week that he would not serve his new term. “I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress,” he wrote.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
