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Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida is dreaming of becoming former President Donald Trump’s attorney general.
Gaetz floated his dream during a Newsmax interview on Friday, while arguing that House Republicans should submit criminal referrals from their investigation of Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) despite Biden appointee Merrick Garland being the current attorney general.
The GOP congressman noted that the referrals could remain valid for five years, providing an opportunity for a Republican to win back the White House and appoint “Attorney General Matt Gaetz” or another attorney general of his “liking.” Gaetz has endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Drew Angerer
“I don’t ascribe to the theory that we just have to surrender sending criminal referrals because somehow Merrick Garland won’t prosecute them,” Gaetz told guest host David Harris, Jr. “For many of the crimes that we are observing, the statute of limitations is five years.”
“We go take the White House back and you never know, David, it might be an Attorney General Matt Gaetz down the road,” he continued. “Or someone of my liking who will be there to actually enforce the law.”
Harris then told Gaetz, “I like that, Attorney General Matt Gaetz? Are you kidding me? Man!”
“The world is not ready, probably,” Gaetz responded with a chuckle. “Certainly Senate confirmation wouldn’t be. But, you know, a boy can dream.”
Prior to his political career, Gaetz earned a law degree from the College of William & Mary Law School in 2007. He went on to work for a law firm in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, before being elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2010.
In 2021, Gaetz’s law license was briefly suspended for being “delinquent” in paying Florida Bar fees, although it was quickly reinstated following media reports of the suspension.
During Trump’s presidency, the job of attorney general became something of a poisoned chalice. Trump’s first attorney general, ex-Senator Jeff Sessions, publicly tussled with Trump for months after recusing himself in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Sessions resigned at the behest of Trump in November 2018. Matthew Whitaker replaced Sessions as acting attorney general. The appointment sparked three months of legal challenges due to Whittaker never being confirmed by the Senate.
Former Attorney General William Barr took the position in February 2019. Barr, who would go on to become a fierce critic of Trump, resigned in December 2020 after refusing to back the former president’s false claims that massive voter fraud was to blame for his election loss to Biden.
Jeffrey Rosen, Barr’s deputy, served as acting attorney general during the last month of Trump’s presidency, when he was allegedly pressured to declare the election “corrupt” and help overturn the outcome.
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