WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as U.S. attorney general, a surprising and highly controversial pick that could set up a confirmation battle in the Senate as the congressman continues to battle accusations of illicit drug use and sex trafficking.

At a Wednesday evening news conference, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Gaetz had resigned from Congress “effective immediately” in order to begin the process of filling his House seat. The job of setting a special election to replace Gaetz in the House falls to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is currently on a trade mission to Italy.

Johnson said he plans to talk to the Florida governor “first thing in the morning” on Thursday.

A far-right firebrand, Gaetz spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and falsely blamed antifa activists for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

He opposed efforts to investigate ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government, and criticized Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for allowing the probe to continue.

Last year, Gaetz’s congressional office said that a Justice Department investigation into his alleged involvement in sex trafficking and obstruction of justice ended without charges. The investigation revolved around questions of whether Gaetz was involved with a 17-year-old girl years earlier, and his relationship with Joel Greenberg, the convicted former Seminole County, Florida, tax collector. Several of Gaetz’s associates testified before a federal grand jury in Orlando as part of that case.

Prosecutors ultimately declined to bring charges against the congressman, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. But a bipartisan investigation in the House Ethics Committee into his activities remains ongoing. In June, the committee issued a statement that the allegations against him “merit continued review” and noted that new allegations had emerged that warranted investigation.

Announcing the pick, Trump called Gaetz a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney who will “focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”

“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System. 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.

“Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution,” he added. “We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ.”

Gaetz is the latest in a growing list of Floridians who have been named to prestigious roles in Trump’s incoming administration. The president-elect has already tapped longtime Florida GOP operative Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz as his national security adviser and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state.

Gaetz, the son of a former Florida state Senate president, has little real experience in the legal profession. He graduated from William & Mary Law School in 2007 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2008 before winning a state House seat in a 2010 special election. He remained in Tallahassee until his election to the U.S. House in 2016.

Among his colleagues in Washington, Gaetz has a reputation as a hard-right agitator.

Last year, after then-U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed a stopgap spending bill through Congress with the help of a coalition of Democrats, Gaetz moved to oust McCarthy from the speakership with the help of fellow right-wing lawmakers.

That effort was ultimately successful, but set off a weekslong battle to replace McCarthy that many Republicans saw as an embarrassing public display of internal turmoil.

While Gaetz has irritated many of his Republican colleagues in Congress, he has remained close to Trump, who has repeatedly expressed a desire to install loyalists into the most prominent roles in U.S. government. Gaetz, one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal critics of the Justice Department and the FBI, fits that mold perfectly.

Trump has already expressed regrets about some of his appointees during his first four years in the White House. At a Univision town hall with Latino voters last month in Doral, Florida, Trump said that during his first term, some members of his administration fell short of his expectations. That would not happen again, he said.

“I know the good ones, the bad ones, the smart ones, the dumb ones, the ones that don’t have courage,” Trump said. “You think you never really know about courage until you’re tested. But I know the people very well. I know who I want, who I don’t want.”

If Gaetz is ultimately confirmed to the attorney general job by the Senate, it would trigger a special election in his Florida Panhandle congressional district to replace him. The date of that election would be set by DeSantis, who will likely also be tasked with appointing a successor to Rubio and setting a special election to fill Waltz’s House seat.

_____

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.