Typically, appointees for the job of U.S. attorney general have had long careers working in law and law enforcement. But that’s not the case for Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump’s new attorney general.
Aside from being the subject of a recent criminal investigation himself, Gaetz has limited familiarity with the workings of the federal Justice Department — and conspicuously little experience actually using his law degree.
In announcing Gaetz as his pick to lead the DOJ, Trump praised him as a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.” But Gaetz barely ever practiced law before going into politics, having followed his father into the Florida state legislature less than three years after passing the bar. Gaetz spent that time not as a prosecutor, but as a junior associate at a small litigation firm near where he grew up.
This kind of resume may seem disqualifying for someone vying to run the DOJ, and it may doom Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed — if his unresolved ethics scandal and general unpopularity among the Republican ranks don’t preclude him outright. But after burning through attorneys general in his first administration, Trump just wants a loyalist in the position, even if that means one whose last court appearance was more than a decade ago.
Gaetz graduated from William and Mary Law School in Virginia in 2007, and he was admitted to the Florida Bar in February 2008, according to state records. Before running for an open state House seat in early 2010, Gaetz worked briefly for a Florida law firm.
“Many know Matt from his work in the courtroom in support of the Eglin AFB F-35 beddown,” boasts his website, a reference to a stunty lawsuit Gaetz filed against the city of Valparaiso. The city was suing the U.S. Air Force in federal court over noise from F-35 fighter jets, and Gaetz jumped in with a bizarre demand that a local judge order Valparaiso to halt its federal lawsuit. Valparaiso and the Air Force ultimately settled, and a judge rejected Gaetz’s argument, reminding him that state courts are “completely without power” to do what he asked under basic constitutional tenets. Valparaiso’s former mayor was emphatic that Gaetz had “absolutely nothing to do” with the issue getting resolved, but Gaetz made it part of his campaign mythology regardless.
Since leaving practice to follow his father into the Florida legislature in 2010, Gaetz has kept his law license active. In 2019, by which time he had won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Florida state bar announced it was investigating Gaetz over a vaguely threatening tweet he sent about Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who was set to testify before the House oversight committee the next day.
Gaetz deleted the tweet and apologized, and a Florida disciplinary committee let him off with a stern letter that chided him for a tweet that “was unprofessional, reckless, insensitive, and demonstrated poor judgment.”
Trump praised him as a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.” But Gaetz barely ever practiced law before going into politics.
After the January 6 insurrection, dozens of Gaetz’s law school classmates and other William and Mary Law School alumni signed a letter calling on him to resign from Congress for trying to obstruct the electoral vote count and spreading the lie that some who stormed the Capitol were antifa “masquerading as Trump supporters.”
Later that year, Gaetz briefly had his law license suspended for delinquent fees to the Florida Bar. “Congressman Gaetz is no longer actively engaged in the practice of law,” his spokesperson said at the time to explain the lapse. “He is focused on representing his constituents in Congress, not the courtroom.” Still, he quickly paid the late fees and lifted the suspension.
In March 2021, news broke that Gaetz was under investigation by the DOJ for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, which he has repeatedly denied. One of Trump’s aides testified that Gaetz asked for a presidential pardon, which Trump did not give before leaving office.
The House ethics committee opened its own review soon after, which was put on hold until the Justice Department closed its inquiry without filing charges against Gaetz in early 2023. Gaetz’s abrupt resignation this week brought the ethics investigation to a halt. But ahead of a possible confirmation battle senators from both parties are demanding access to the committee’s report, which is reportedly “highly damaging.”
Further details may emerge from an ongoing push by the Miami Herald to unseal materials in a federal civil case related to the allegations. These include deposition transcripts in which alleged trafficking victims claim that Gaetz attended a sex party, which Gaetz also denied.
If confirmed as attorney general — which plenty put at long odds — Gaetz stands to be the least qualified person in modern memory to become the nation’s top law enforcement official. But he will also do exactly as Trump tells him, which is all Trump needs.
