Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) was investigated for years by the Justice Department in a sex trafficking probe before prosecutors dropped the case.
Now, he could end up leading the very agency that investigated him.
On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump said he was tapping Gaetz as his next attorney general.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
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The DOJ opened an investigation into Gaetz in 2020 amid allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel across state lines with him.
“I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward,” Gaetz told The New York Times in 2021.
In 2022, White House aide Johnny McEntee gave testimony as part of a House select committee investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. In that testimony, McEntee alleged that Gaetz had sought a pardon from Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
McEntee said that Gaetz told him that he, Gaetz, “did not do anything wrong, but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great,” The Washington Post reported.
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Last year, the DOJ dropped its investigation into Gaetz and no charges were brought forward. Attorneys representing several witnesses and others in the investigation told NBC News in October 2022 that the case had stalled over concerns about the credibility of key witnesses, along with a lack of direct evidence to implicate Gaetz.
Despite this, the House Ethics Committee launched its own investigation into Gaetz earlier this year.
The committee said Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
Gaetz has continued to deny these allegations.
In a post on X, Gaetz seemed ready to take charge of the Justice Department, though it remains unclear if he’ll get confirmed by the Senate.
“It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!” he posted.