Donald Trump Likely to Pull Matt Gaetz Nomination, Ex-Prosecutor Predicts

Following backlash over President-elect Donald Trump picking former Representative Matt Gaetz as his U.S. attorney general, Trump is likely to pull the nomination, Glenn Kirschner, a former prosecutor and legal analyst, predicted on Thursday.
Trump announced on Wednesday he had selected the Florida Republican to serve as his U.S. attorney general, tasking a fierce loyalist with the dramatic overhaul of the Department of Justice (DOJ) over more experienced candidates. Gaetz 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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Trump’s nomination immediately brought backlash, with some legal experts and lawmakers saying that Gaetz was “unqualified” and could face an uphill battle getting the U.S. Senate to confirm him. The pick was also controversial because Gaetz is the subject of a bipartisan investigation by the House Ethics Committee over alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, which he has denied.
Gaetz has since resigned from Congress on Wednesday, scuttling plans for the release of a report revealing the results of the investigation, which was expected to be made public as soon as Friday.
Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, spoke in a YouTube video on Thursday about the nomination and subsequent backlash in which he predicted Trump is going to withdraw Gaetz’s name from the nomination, citing that the DOJ will not back Gaetz.
“The reasonable imprints can be drawn that Matt Gaetz promptly resigned after being reelected to Congress not because Donald Trump said he’s going to give him a Cabinet appointment but because he wanted to try to block, to bury that oncoming train that is the House Ethics report about Matt Gaetz’s misconduct,” Kirschner said.
He added: “And here’s another thing I happen to believe Donald Trump was trying to accomplish by just throwing Matt Gaetz’s name into the mix as attorney general. I think that’s a name that will be withdrawn, but in any event, I worked for decades at the Department of Justice, and I know the men and women there, but I know by in large they are honest, ethical, honorable people, lawyers…And I have to believe that my former colleagues at the Department of Justice are looking at Donald Trump’s alleged nomination of Matt Gaetz and saying, ‘Look I can’t work for this guy, I can’t work for what I believe his policies and priorities to be.’ I find it hard to believe that the Republicans will just check their spine at the door and vote in favor of Matt Gaetz.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson and Gaetz’s office via email for comment.
Kirschner’s comments come after the Associated Press reported on Wednesday that most Republicans avoided directly answering whether they supported Trump’s pick.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, told the AP that Gaetz will have “his work cut out for him” to win enough votes for confirmation.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration and professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, previously told Newsweek that he agrees that Gaetz could face difficulty winning Senate confirmation.
He said the Senate Judiciary Committee could refuse to hold a hearing or delay a vote on the nomination if “all the relevant information” about the nominee is not handed over, including the House Ethics Committee’s report.
“Republicans in the Senate are not going to want to be associated with approving an attorney general without a thorough background check. I just don’t think they’re going to want to do that,” he said. “There are plenty of very, very conservative Republicans who could become Attorney General. Mr. Gaetz is the President-elect’s choice, but all the information needs to be provided the Senate, and I just don’t think Republican senators are going to vote yes blindly without all that information.”