WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Matt Gaetz – a member of the House of Representatives from Florida who was recently the target of an FBI investigation – as the next attorney general of the United States sent shock waves through the department on Wednesday of Justice.
“OMG,” said a current senior Justice Department official. A second department official called the selection “truly stunning,” and a third called it “insane.”
Gaetz, who was the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation that ended without charges, has been a staunch Trump supporter and has regularly attacked both the Justice Department and the FBI, including calling for a defunding of the FBI to levy and abolish.
“What’s going on?!” asked a senior Justice Department official, who, like others quoted in this story, spoke anonymously to candidly assess the man chosen to lead their department.
The official called it “laughable” that Gaetz was nominated and said he should not be confirmed in such a critical position at a monumental moment in history.
Another Justice Department official said, “I’m struggling for words.”
“And look, he has a unique qualification,” the Justice Department official snapped. “How many other future attorneys general had prior experience as the subject of a criminal investigation?”
One current senior Justice Department official “didn’t see this coming,” while another called it “absolutely unbelievable.”
In the hallways of the Justice Department’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, the mood was somber Wednesday as some employees sat to process what impact Gaetz might have on the institution, which has been operating under a set of post-Watergate standards intended to to prevent political prejudices from arising. that affect criminal investigations.
The United States Department of Justice in Washington, DC. on July 25, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
Gaetz was particularly critical of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, which led to indictments against more than 1,500 Trump supporters and the convictions of more than 1,100 criminals who took part in the attack. more than 600 of them were sentenced to prison terms.
On the night of January 6, after the crowd was cleared from the building, Gaetz spread the conspiracy theory on the House floor that the attack was actually orchestrated by the left-wing antifa group.
In the years after the attack, he spread conspiracy theories about Ray Epps, a Trump supporter and January 6 defendant who was falsely portrayed as a government agent, as well as about the pipe bombs left outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic Party. National Committee on the eve of the attack.
Gaetz also attempted to visit inmates at the jail on January 6 and demanded the release of all surveillance tapes of the attack. A Jan. 6 defendant, Brandon Straka, said early last year that he was in “regular” contact with Gaetz about the fate of those charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
Once Trump takes office, Gaetz will still have to be formally nominated for the position, a position that will be confirmed by the Senate. Senate Republicans expressed bafflement Wednesday over the choice of Gaetz, though most were careful to leave the door open for him.
A former senior Justice Department official, meanwhile, said in a text message that Gaetz’s selection “can’t be real.”
“Matt lacks any substance or understanding of how the department operates,” the former official continued. “He would be the final decision maker on really important matters of national security and this is someone who has no principles at all.”
Another former senior Justice Department official said, “He is the least qualified person ever nominated for a position at the Justice Department.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
