In Congress, President Trump’s Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz was at the forefront in challenging the Justice Department and was a staunch defender of the former president, hinting at the role the firebrand could play in remaking the troubled federal agency once he is confirmed.
This from justthenews.com.
Rep. Matt Gaetz rose to prominence defending then-President Trump and bashing the Justice Department during the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump campaign, frequently appearing on television and using his role on key committees to challenge the agency, which pushed the long-debunked “Russian conspiracy” narrative.
After Trump’s first term ended, the four-term congressman challenged the department on its handling of Hunter Biden probes and the investigation into the Trump assassination attempts.
President-elect Trump undoubtedly nominated Gaetz for these reasons, seeing him as an important defender and loyal ally to head an agency he felt was undermining him at every turn in his first term.
But, Gaetz will still likely face a tough confirmation battle and his nomination has drawn skepticism from Senate Republicans who will be vital to confirming him to the role.
When spurious allegations that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia were being pushed by Capitol Hill communists/globalists, Donald Trump’s first attorney general, former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, angered the president when he recused himself and allowed the department to appoint a special counsel to investigate the allegations.
Second Term: Trump will trade a Weenie for a Fireball.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, along with Reps. Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes became the chief critics of the investigation and defenders of President Trump and his administration.
Throughout the investigation, he demanded special counsel Robert Mueller release any evidence of collusion obtained during his secretive investigation. When the final report came showing the probe found no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, Gaetz sharply criticized Mueller and pressed him in a hearing for answers about the foundations of his investigation.
Specifically, he criticized Mueller for the apparent bias of his team which pursued shaky leads on Trump but failed to evaluate the veracity of information in the infamous—and now discredited—Steele Dossier.
Gaetz told Mueller at the hearing:
Here’s what I am kind of noticing Director Mueller, when people associated with Trump lied, you threw the book at them. When Christopher Steele lied, nothing.
So, it seems to be when Glenn Simpson met with Russians, nothing. When Trump met with the Russians, 3500 words.
And maybe the reason there are these discrepancies in what you focused on is because the team was so biased and pledged to the resistance. And pledged to stop Trump.
After the Trump Justice Department appointed special prosecutor John Durham to investigate any errors in the Russia investigation, Gaetz criticized him for, in his view, failing to deliver a thorough probe.
Gaetz told Durham during a hearing:
For the people like the chairman who put trust in you, I think you let them down. I think you let the country down. You are one of the barriers to the true accountability that we need.
Congressional Democrats swept into power in 2019 and eventually launched the first impeachment against President Trump alleging he improperly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to find political dirt on his opponent Joe Biden.
Gaetz yet again became a key defender of Trump.
When Chairman Adam Schiff (C/G-CA) who led the probe, held secret hearings behind closed doors and out of public view in a SCIF—a facility for hearing classified information—Gaetz rallied a group of House Republicans to rush into the room and disrupt the hearings. The group of representatives complained of the “Soviet style” process of the impeachment. Schiff would later be censured by the House.
Eventually that impeachment effort failed when Senate Republicans voted to acquit the president.
After Dementia Joe assumed office in 2020, Gaetz continued his criticism against the Department of Justice for what he called unfair treatment of Jan. 6 protestors that entered the Capitol and for stonewalling the Biden impeachment investigation.
Earlier this year, Gaetz pressed Garland on the several legal cases against Trump, asking the attorney general to provide communications between his office and local authorities that had charged Trump. Specifically, Congress sought any communications between Garland’s DOJ and either Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg or Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Gaetz argued that any obstruction of the request would fuel the very “conspiracy theory” Garland sought to discount:
That [The Obiden Regime] had coordinated with local prosecutors in the Trump cases.
Garland attempted to respond:
The offices you’re referring to are independent offices of state—
Gaetz interjected:
You come in here, and you lodge this attack that it’s a conspiracy theory that there’s coordinated lawfare against Trump.
Further:
And then we say, ‘Fine, just give us the documents. Give us the correspondents, and then if it’s a conspiracy theory that will be evidence.
And:
But when you say, ‘Well, we’ll take your request, and then we’ll sort of work it through the DOJ’s accommodation process,’ then you’re actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you’re concerned about.
Gaetz’s critical history with the Justice Department leaves little room for doubt that the now-former representative would:
[S]eek to overhaul the agency and pursue
the ‘retribution’ at both the DOJ and FBI that
Donald Trump promised on the campaign trial.
The choice has reportedly rattled DOJ officials, especially those involved in the prosecutions against Trump, which have wound down at the federal level as the president prepares to take office again in January.
One thing that Gaetz is almost certain to do is be fully committed to implementing any Trump policies at the department, a mission that stands in contrast to his Republican successors, which acted in more independent ways from their chief executive.
Close Trump ally and transition team member Mark Paoletta said in a post to X:
[R]ank-and-file DOJ lawyers should be fully committed to implementing President Trump’s policies or they should leave or be fired.
Paoletta also warned that the new Trump team would not accept any attempts by federal bureaucrats to thwart the agenda of the incoming administration.
God speed to Matt Gaetz with his confirmation.
