Rep. Matt Gaetzone of Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Congress, is the president-elect’s choice to be attorney general. It’s a surprising choice based on Trump’s long-held view of the Justice Department as an extension of the White House.
As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer wrote in a 2019 profile, the Florida Republican has made a political career trolling everyone from food stamp recipients to Michael Cohen. Gaetz’s controversial career, secured largely thanks to family connections, has given way to becoming a staunch Trump loyalist and all-rounder. “Matt Gaetz is living proof that:Beep beepIt was less parody and more prophecy.”Steve Schmidt said.
But now that he’s on the verge of becoming the White House’s next attorney general, threatening to prosecute enemies ranging from Nancy Pelosi to the media, it’s also worth noting that Gaetz is a terrible lawyer. Stephanie says:
Meanwhile, Matt Gaetz worked for a politically connected firm in Fort Walton Beach, near Niceville, after graduating from William & Mary Law School in 2007. He worked hard to navigate the legal challenges of fitting in as a junior in a district whose largest city, Pensacola, has a population of nearly 50,000. He filed a debt collection lawsuit against an elderly woman who could not pay the home care company owned by Gaetz’s father. Matt also represented a homeowners association fighting the county over beach volleyball net placement. And he sued two female professional fishermen, the “Red Fish Chicks,” for absconding with a $50,000 boat owned by a local restaurant that had hired them to promote it.
Less than a year after joining the company, he became one of the company’s customers. One night in October 2008, Gaetz was driving his father’s BMW home from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island when a sheriff’s deputy stopped him for speeding. (Gaetz’s driving record is the subject of many jokes in his district. In 2014, he rear-ended one of his constituents while talking on his cellphone.)
Gaetz’s nomination is the latest in a string of shockingly underqualified nominations for the incoming administration, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Fox News host (Department of Defense) and Kristi Noem (Department of Homeland Security).
