Congressman Matt Gaetz announced Thursday that he is resigning as attorney general in the new Donald Trump administration. Gaetz was in the spotlight due to the Congressional Ethics Committee’s investigation into him for having sex with a minor.
The controversial figure of Gaetz already sparked criticism among some Republican senators when Trump announced his decision last week. So it was unclear whether he would get the votes needed to certify the position in the Senate. Trump himself had acknowledged in private conversations that Gaetz might not get enough votes.
“It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the work of the Trump/Vance transition. There is no time to waste in an unnecessarily prolonged fight in Washington, so I will withdraw my name from nomination for attorney general,” Gaetz wrote in deadlock over whether or not to publish the report. that had been inflicted on him in those years.
The Congressional Ethics Commission met this Wednesday behind closed doors amid demands for the release of the report on Matt Gaetz for having sex with a minor. Specifically, the committee was investigating Gaetz for sexual misconduct, illegal drug use, accepting inappropriate gifts, and attempting to obstruct government investigations into his behavior. The Florida congressman has always denied all accusations.
Gaetz also resigned as a congressman last week, the same day Trump announced he was choosing him to be attorney general. The resignation came just days before the commission released its report on his case.
As he is no longer a member of Congress, the process was frozen and the document could no longer be published. Nevertheless, various members of Congress insisted that this document be made public, while the speaker House Republican Mike Johnson announced Friday that he would “strongly” ask the commission not to release the final report.
The Ethics Committee is a bipartisan body, so in the vote only one Republican lawmaker had to join Democrats for the initiative to release the document to pass.
The position Trump offered Gaetz is one of the most important within the Justice Department, which in 2021 also opened an investigation into Gaetz for sex trafficking. According to US media, the case focused on whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid her to travel with him. Justice closed the process in 2023 without criminal consequences and, then, the committee resumed its investigation.
The day before the committee meeting, an anonymous hacker gained access to a file on the lawyers’ computer containing testimony related to Gaetz, according to the New York Times. Among the information stolen by the hacker was allegedly a document containing 24 pieces of evidence against the Florida congressman, including sworn testimony from a woman who said she had sex with Gaetz in 2017, then that she was 17, as well as other testimony from a second woman who claimed to have attended the meeting. The hacker did not make the material public.
