WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general Matt Gaetz has launched an effort to personally secure his controversial nomination, meeting behind closed doors Wednesday with Republican senators who have questions about the sexual misconduct and other accusations against him.
As Gaetz and senators holed up near the Senate, members of the House Ethics Committee were expected to meet to discuss the findings of a long-running investigation into their former colleague. At least one Republican senator denounced the “lynch mob” forming against Gaetz, who if confirmed would become the nation’s top law enforcement official.
“I’m not going to legitimize the process of destroying the man because people don’t like his politics,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said as he left the private senators’ meeting.
“He deserves a chance to make the case for why he should be attorney general,” Graham said. “No stamp, no lynching.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who supports Gaetz’s nomination, said, “If you have concerns, that’s fine. But don’t make a decision yet. Let that man testify first.’
When the senators met in the secluded Strom Thurmond Room, Hawley said Gaetz was in a “cheerful” mood.
It marks the start of a personal effort by Gaetz, who has long denied mounting allegations against him, to shore up Senate support for confirmation as the country’s attorney general. He brings sweeping proposals to rid the Justice Department of those Trump says have “weaponized” their work against the newly elected president, his allies and conservatives in general.
Led by newly elected Vice President J.D. Vance, Gaetz’s meeting with allies in the Senate was largely a strategy session in which he emphasized the need for a Senate hearing where he could lay out his and Trump’s vision for the Justice Department.
It follows a meeting Gaetz had early this week with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have expressed enthusiasm for his approach to wholesale change, which has created a climate of fear and dismay at DOJ.
However, Gaetz is also racing against time against the possible release of the House Ethics Committee report, which would publicly air the allegations against him.
At the same time, attorneys involved in a civil case brought by a Gaetz employee were notified this week that an unauthorized person had accessed a file shared among attorneys that contained unredacted statements from a woman who has said that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17. and a second woman who said she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.
Although House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the Ethics Committee should not release the report — as Gaetz quickly resigned his seat in Congress — several Republican senators have indicated they want all the information before they have to make a decision on how they would vote.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who also met with Gaetz, said of the House Ethics Committee report: “We didn’t go into detail about what he expects in it, but he expressed confidence that what’s in it , before the committee is a series of false accusations.”
Once the new Congress convenes on January 3, when Republicans take the majority vote, senators are expected to hold hearings on Trump’s nominees, with voting possible on Inauguration Day.
Trump has long had a valued ally in Gaetz, who was a star of congressional oversight hearings as he railed against what conservatives say is cronyism within the Justice Department, which has sued the former president over alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 law. elections prior to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
But the president-elect’s choice is among the most surprising and provocative, coming in the wake of the “Me Too” era and a broad societal shift against those alleged to have engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.
However, the Senate has a long history of putting aside concerns about sexual behavior when it comes to confirming presidential nominees.
Hawley said he did not find the allegations against Gaetz credible.
