Gaetz too ‘blackmailable’ for attorney general, Trump allies worried

Matt Gaetz was Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general for eight days. The former Florida congressman historical map his tenure as president ended Thursday when he bowed out, claiming he no longer wanted the frenzy over the sexual misconduct allegations against him to distract from “the critical work of the Trump/Vance administration.”

Gaetz has long been under scrutiny for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party in 2017. The Justice Department investigated him over it and accused him of sex trafficking, but ultimately declined to press charges. The House Ethics Committee also investigated Gaetz over the allegations and was poised to release its findings before Gaetz resigned from Congress last week. The committee’s report was reportedly damning, and there is much to suggest that what is publicly known about Gaetz’s alleged indiscretions is only the tip of the iceberg. CNN reported Thursday that Gaetz abandoned his bid for attorney general less than an hour after the network informed him they were releasing a report about how he allegedly had multiple sexual encounters with the then-minor.

Trump’s allies seemed well aware that there might be more to Gaetz than meets the public eye, and they worried that it could become a problem if Gaetz took the reins of the US justice system.

The recent drip-drip-drip of new revelations about Gaetz’s alleged sexual activities in 2017—along with the promise of whatever bombshells were contained in the ethics committee’s still-unreleased report—inspired an undercurrent throughout Washington, DC, of talk, opposition research and first-hand accounts from members of Congress. The rumblings, according to Republican and Democratic sources, led to concerns in the career halls of the Justice Department — as well as among some GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill and even in certain corners of Trump’s orbit — that there was just too much secret, non-public personal baggage for Gaetz name that could be used against him.

As one Trump adviser put it, if Gaetz had become attorney general, he likely would have been “the most blackmailing person who has ever served as attorney general of the United States … and that’s not a risk you want to take when the whole the job goes after criminals.”

The concern surrounding Gaetz does not mean he is banished from Trump’s world. The president-elect publicly praised him after he withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday, and two sources in Trump’s inner circle say Rolling Stone that they are pushing internally for Gaetz to get a cushy White House job in the incoming Trump administration that would not require Senate confirmation.

There is some chance that Gaetz could return to the US Capitol – he only resigned from Congress for the time being, and in November he was elected to represent Florida’s 1st District in the session that will meet in January.

But Gaetz indicated in his resignation letter that he had no intention of taking the oath of office until the next Congress. He may not want to, after all, since that would mean he would once again be open to congressional scrutiny of his alleged sexual misconduct, drug use and other indiscretions. Leaving the Hill to join the Trump administration might make more sense.

Gaetz is somehow just one of several Trump administration picks linked to sexual misconduct. The media’s attention — as well as Senate Republicans — is now likely to shift to Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host whom Trump wants to lead the Pentagon.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Thursday, working to calm nerves over his near-total lack of qualifications to serve as defense secretary, as well as a sexual assault allegation against him by a woman who told police he raped her in a Monterey, California. , hotel in 2017. Hegseth has denied the account and claims the meeting was consensual.