Anxiety and dismay inside the U.S. Justice Department after Trump taps Gaetz as attorney general

Matt Gaetz arrives before U.S. president-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's choice of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general has many Justice Department employees reeling, worried not only about their own jobs but the future of the agency that the Trump loyalist has railed against.

The U.S. president-elect's pick of the Florida Republican sent a shock throughout the Cabinet department, considering Gaetz's lack of experience in law enforcement and the fact that he was once the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation. The names of well-regarded veteran lawyers had circulated as possible contenders for the job, but Gaetz's selection was broadly interpreted as an indication of the premium that Trump places on personal loyalty and Trump's desire to have a disruptor lead a department that for years investigated and ultimately indicted him.

Career lawyers at the department interviewed by The Associated Press, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share their feelings publicly, described a widespread sense of being stunned by the nomination — even outrage. They spoke of being flooded with calls and messages from colleagues as soon as the news broke.

Some inside the department were not immediately sure that Gaetz, who graduated law school in 2007 but has spent his career as a lawmaker, including in Congress, was even a lawyer. And some are already looking for new jobs as concerns grow over Gaetz’s rhetoric about going after the “deep state."

Gaetz has claimed the department is “corrupt and highly political,” and strongly criticized the federal prosecutions of Trump and the Jan. 6 rioters. He also has suggested abolishing two agencies he would oversee as attorney general, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He would arrive in the job without the legal experience of his predecessors, including the current attorney general, Merrick Garland, who as a high-ranking Justice Department official supervised the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case before becoming a federal appeals court judge.

Trump described Gaetz as the right person to "root out the systemic corruption" within the agency, end “weaponized” government and “restore Americans' badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.” Trump has yet to announce a similar leadership change at the FBI, though one may be coming given his long-running criticism of the director, Christopher Wray.

“I think he was picked to shake the whole thing and to throw a grenade into DOJ," said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, who was nominated by Democratic former U.S. president Barack Obama. “He's a flamethrower and that's what Trump wants.”

Fishwick said Justice Department lawyers he has been in touch with are “concerned about what this is going to mean for them individually.”

But one Justice Department lawyer was less bothered by the change, saying a leadership shakeup could be a welcome reset given the “mistrust from both the left and the right” that the attorney said was justified after a tumultuous stretch of politically charged investigations that have divided public opinion and put federal law enforcement on the defensive.

The FBI and Justice Department, in recent years, have undertaken investigations into hot-button matters including classified information on Hillary Clinton’s private email server when the Democrats' 2016 presidential nominee was Obama's secretary of state and potential ties between Russia and Trump’s political campaign that same year. Both became subjects of inspector general reviews. More recently there was a special counsel investigation that produced federal indictments against Trump that now are in line to be erased.

It is unclear whether Gaetz has enough Republican support in the Senate to be confirmed. Some Republicans have praised his nomination, but several have expressed concern or refused to say publicly yet whether they will support him. Trump has broached the possibility of bypassing the traditional confirmation process by pushing through his nominees while the Senate is in recess.

Gaetz faces continued scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation that ended without criminal charges. Before his resignation from the House on Wednesday, he had been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which was examining whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and tried to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that he will “strongly request” that the House committee not release the results of its investigation, rebuffing senators who are demanding access now that Gaetz is Trump's pick for attorney general.

Gaetz has denied all the allegations. On Friday, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “lies were Weaponized” in an effort to try to destroy him.

Justice Department employees were already preparing for major shakeup to the agency's agenda around civil rights and others matters before Trump settled on Gaetz to be the nation's top federal law enforcement officer.

Trump has been known to take a keen interest in the FBI and Justice Department, expecting loyalty from leaders and calling for specific actions. He has railed against what he views as a politically motivated justice system over the cases brought against him by a Justice Department special counsel. As a candidate, he repeatedly suggested that he would seek revenge on his perceived enemies for his prosecution.

Some career department lawyers leave for the private sector every time there is a new administration, but employees say there could be a dramatic departure of staff in the coming months.

“The department runs on career employees, people who are apolitical in work, and politics aside, if all of these people are so dismayed at the selection of the attorney general that they leave, who will carry out the functions of the department?” said one Justice Department lawyer, who is planning to leave the government.

Chris Mattei, a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut who prosecuted ex-Gov. John Rowland and later ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general as a Democrat, said he has heard a “significant level of concern” about Gaetz over the criminal investigation that Gaetz faced, the House ethics review, a potentially insufficient examination of his background and the prospect that the department could be led by “somebody who is highly compromised” and also may have a “personal vendetta" against it.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.