Matt Gaetz, Once a Justice Department Target, Now Targets Justice Department

In the first Trump administration, Matt Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly sex trafficking a minor.

In the second, he’s been picked to lead it.

The elevation of the former congressman as Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general underscores a dramatic shift in the works for the second Trump term. The once and future president appears to be favoring loyalists who have talked about tearing down the institutions they are now tasked with leading.

Prosecutors in the first Trump administration also examined whether Gaetz obstructed justice by talking to a witness after the probe had started, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials at the time believed prosecutors were building a strong case against the congressman, the people said. The Biden Justice Department ultimately closed it without bringing charges, in part over concerns about whether potential witnesses would appear credible if the case went to trial, The Wall Street Journal and others previously reported. 

“Matt will have to answer a lot of questions with respect to the investigations,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican.

Gaetz, 42, resigned from his seat this week ahead of the expected release of a House Ethics Committee report that examined whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, saying in a brief resignation letter that he was stepping down “effective immediately” to pursue the position of attorney general.

He has denied wrongdoing and has said: “every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Friday the panel shouldn’t release its report, citing past precedent, hours after he returned from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. A bipartisan cadre of lawmakers, however, have said senators should be able to review it as part of Gaetz’s confirmation process.

Gaetz’s attitude toward the Justice Department appears to have soured over time. As a member of the House Judiciary panel in 2019, he paid a visit to Attorney General William Barr in his office and exchanged pleasantries with him, some of the people familiar with the matter said. Gaetz asked if there was anything he could do to help the department advance its agenda, one person said. At the time, he wasn’t aware of the already-unfolding investigation that would soon envelop him, the people said.

More recently, Gaetz has introduced legislation to eliminate the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and tried to block funding for a new Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters, saying its officials deserved to sit in their “rat-infested” building until they changed their approach.

At a congressional hearing earlier this year, he criticized what he and others have called the weaponization of the justice system against conservatives. “I think that the lawfare we’ve seen against President Trump will do great damage well beyond our time in public service.”

A playboy reputation has long dogged Gaetz, who bragged to other lawmakers about the women he slept with, sharing videos of them on the floor of the U.S. House. One party in particular has continued to cast a shadow: In July 2017, when he was a freshman U.S. lawmaker, he attended a gathering at a home north of Orlando where cocaine, ecstasy, and a naked 17-year-old girl were present, according to witness testimony in court records in related civil litigation.

A friend of his who was also at the July 2017 party, an elected county tax collector named Joel Greenberg, would go on to plead guilty to sex trafficking, stalking and identity theft, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. As part of his 2021 plea agreement, Greenberg admitted to paying for sex with women, including a minor, and charging some of it to his government American Express account. He said he introduced the girl to other men, who also paid her for sex.

Prosecutors examined whether Gaetz was one of those men, The Wall Street Journal and others have reported. But as the broader criminal investigation progressed, doubts were growing about whether the prosecutors had a solid case against Gaetz, people familiar with the matter said. Witnesses who testified before the grand jury were unable to corroborate the central allegation, that Gaetz, too, had had sex with the girl when she was 17, a lawyer for Gaetz said. Some witnesses suggested Gaetz had slept with her, but it was around her 18th birthday, leaving an opening for confusion about whether she was a minor at the time, the lawyer said.

Inside the Justice Department, prosecutors debated whether they should bring charges, people familiar with the investigation said. Some pointed to credibility issues with Greenberg, their potential star witness. A high-profile defendant always poses challenges for prosecutors, but some said they should forge ahead. Prosecutors recommended against charging Gaetz in September 2022.

Gaetz, who wasn’t named in Greenberg’s plea, has denied ever having sex with a minor as an adult or paying for sex, and said any accusations against him were part of an extortion scheme to get his family to pay $25 million to put an end to the investigation.

At the end of Trump’s first term, Gaetz asked several of Trump’s senior advisers to help him secure a pre-emptive pardon. “He wanted a pardon, as I recall it, from the beginning of time up until that day for anything,” White House lawyer Eric Herschmann later told a Congressional inquiry.

No pardon was forthcoming, and eventually Gaetz found himself under scrutiny by his peers in the House, some of whom he had alienated with his confrontational style.

Gaetz grew up in Seaside, Fla., a planned community west of Tallahassee, in the house where the movie “The Truman Show” was filmed. His father, Don Gaetz, was the onetime president of the Florida state Senate, and retook his old seat in November after being forced out by term limits in 2016.

Nicknamed “Baby Gaetz,” the younger Gaetz worked as an attorney and later in the state House. He won a crowded primary for an open seat in a Republican district and was sworn into the U.S. House in January 2017.

During his years in the minority, Gaetz studied the tactics of the left-wing Squad—the name coined by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the informal group of younger, progressive House Democrats—viewing them as role models in asymmetric power.

His increasingly antagonistic style of politics came with a makeover aimed at television. He donned slim-tailored suits, slicked his hair into swoops and learned how to contour his face with makeup.

In the House, Gaetz stood out as one of Trump’s most sharp-elbowed defenders, arriving in Washington right as Trump took office. Gaetz quickly became known for his aggressive questioning of witnesses and his willingness to champion Trump’s positions on television.

In 2019, he led a protest aimed at disrupting a hearing during Trump’s first impeachment, storming into a secure meeting room and delaying a Pentagon witness’ testimony by several hours.

Gaetz had an increasingly antagonistic relationship with House GOP leaders after the House Ethics Committee began looking into allegations of sexual misconduct and the sharing of inappropriate images or videos on the House floor. That probe began in 2021 when Democrats controlled the House.

After Republicans regained control, Gaetz fought former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ascent, voting against him for 14 rounds of ballots in January 2023, before finally switching his vote to “present.” The negotiations became so tense at one point that other lawmakers restrained Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) when he made an angry comment toward Gaetz. The Florida lawmaker got his revenge last year, when he triggered the process that led to McCarthy’s ouster.

“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker. It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,” McCarthy said at a Georgetown University event in April. McCarthy said he didn’t know whether Gaetz had slept with a minor, but “there’s other people in jail because of it.”

Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and blamed McCarthy for pushing the ethics panel to do the investigation.

Gaetz said earlier this year he speaks to Trump nearly every day. He met his wife, Ginger, at Mar-a-Lago and proposed to her there. In May, he also joined other supporters at Trump’s criminal trial, and told the former President that he was “standing back and standing by.”

Gaetz watched from the Manhattan courtroom gallery as Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, cross examined Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney. “We watched Michael Cohen get dog-walked through the series of lies he has told,” Gaetz later said outside the courthouse, flanked by members of the House Freedom Caucus. Blanche is now Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general.

Gaetz hosts his own podcast, “Firebrand with Matt Gaetz,” and frequently appears on other conservative shows, making him one of the most prominent figures in right-wing media.

He has long known and worked with Susie Wiles, whom Trump has picked to serve as his chief of staff next year. The two helped lead Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transition in 2018 and would spend time watching birds in her backyard, Gaetz said in an interview before the election.

In February 2023, Gaetz and his lawyer, Isabelle Kirshner, learned from news reports that the department had ended its probe without charges. She called the prosecutor on it, Todd Gee, to see if that was accurate, and later put out a statement confirming that it was.

“What seemed like a thorough investigation into these allegations had been undertaken, and obviously were not satisfactorily credited,” said Kirshner, of the New York firm Clayman, Rosenberg, Kirshner and Linder.

Some Republicans said they would be happy to move on. A Republican representative who at one point called Gaetz “tubby” in a screaming match on the House floor, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, said he was ready to bury the hatchet. “I’m sick of being angry. I’m sick of not being productive,” he said.

In the Senate, Republicans have said they have concerns and questions over Gaetz’s nomination. Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to see the findings of the House Ethics Committee. The panel had completed its report and had been expected to release it Friday, but was halted by Gaetz’s resignation.

Typically, the House Ethics Committee drops investigations once a lawmaker resigns, but it has the ability to issue the report if it chooses, according to a person familiar with House rules.

“If I was in the Senate and I was doing a confirmation hearing, I would want to see the report,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho) said Thursday. The timing of Gaetz’s resignation, he said, seemed designed to “prevent the report from going out. Must not be a very pretty report.”