Matt Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration with House ethics report hanging over his head
Attorney General-designate Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday, one day after meeting with GOP senators on Capitol Hill — and with a potentially damning congressional ethics report still hanging over his head.
Gaetz, 42, said in an X post he “had excellent meetings with Senators” before adding that “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
“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,” he went on. “Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
“I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history,” the former Republican congressman went on. “I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
Gaetz resigned from the House on Nov. 13, hours after Trump nominated him as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Sources familiar with the confirmation fracas suggested that Gaetz saw the writing on the wall after several Republican senators expressed reservations — and withdrew of his own volition rather than have his name pulled publicly by the president-elect.
“He didn’t have the votes and realized it,” one insider said, while another claimed Gaetz and his allies had been “very confident” as recently as Wednesday about taking up the post.
One source familiar with the process told The Post Gaetz was shown a private whip count shortly before he withdrew — demonstrating in black and white that he had “no path to confirmation.”
Gaetz’s ascent was halted by the resurfacing of details from a sex trafficking probe into him by the Justice Department — which was wrapped up in early 2023 without Gaetz being charged — and an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation of alleged drug abuse and sexual misconduct, among other transgressions.
Female witnesses who testified to both federal and congressional investigators alleged that the then-congressman had sex with them for money — making more than $10,000 in Venmo payments, according to transaction records obtained by ABC News.
At least one of those witnesses also claimed that she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party in July 2017, during his first term in Congress, according to Joel Leppard, an Orlando-based lawyer representing the females accusing the former Florida pol.
CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid claimed on X that Gaetz also bowed out 45 minutes after she called him to seek comment on a report about a second sexual encounter with the same underage girl in 2017.
Gaetz has vehemently denied all allegations, saying the claims from witnesses “are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress” and “should be viewed with great skepticism.”
The House Ethics Committee met on Wednesday for a closed-door vote on whether to release any findings on the former GOP lawmaker — but emerged after two hours of deliberations with “no agreement on releasing the report,” according to Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.).
The 10-member, evenly divided panel only needed one Republican member to cross the aisle to vote in favor of publishing its contents.
At the same time, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) pulled the trigger on a privileged resolution that would have forced a House vote within two legislative days to reveal the full report.
Such resolutions can be tabled by a simple majority, though moderate House Republicans had already indicated skepticism as to whether the conference would be united over the ethics vote.
It was slated to come to the floor of the lower chamber after the Thanksgiving holiday recess.
Ethics members are still scheduled to meet Dec. 5 for another discussion on whether to put out the report — despite Gaetz’s departure from Congress.
Senate Republicans — including incoming Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — had called for the ethics report to be handed over to them for vetting, while Senate Democrats queried the FBI for interview transcripts from any witnesses in the probe.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another Judiciary Committee member, suggested that even without the report, members could subpoena relevant witnesses.
A GOP aide previously had predicted to The Post that Gaetz would not be confirmed in the Senate, saying: “This is all a play to become a martyr to boost [his 2026] gubernatorial prospects [in Florida].”
Another had speculated on the condition of anonymity that many Republican lawmakers were fearful of expressing their true assessment of Gaetz because they didn’t “want to be on the prosecution list” in the next administration.
Trump, 78, responded in a Truth Social post: “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect.”
“Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!” the president-elect praised his former pick, without indicating whether that included holding elected office.
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, a close Trump confidant during the transition, had backed Gaetz earlier this week as a “Hammer of Justice” who would be like the “Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system.”
Previously, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) were rumored to be on Trump’s shortlist of potential attorney general nominees.
Other potential AG picks have already been appointed to plum posts in the second Trump administration — including former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who will serve as the next CIA chief, and former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who will serve as US ambassador to NATO.
