Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration as Trump’s attorney general

Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. attorney general in his incoming administration.

In a post on X on Thursday, Gaetz said that he had “excellent meetings” with senators who had given their feedback and support, but “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General,” the former Florida congressman said.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social shortly after Gaetz’s announcement that the former congressman had been “doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration.”

Gaetz’s path to confirmation was imperiled from the start. He has faced intense scrutiny over a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. A separate Justice Department investigation into allegations Gaetz engaged in sex trafficking ended last year without bringing any charges. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Hours after Trump announced that he would pick the Florida Republican as attorney general last week, Gaetz resigned from the House, effectively ending the committee’s jurisdiction over him. And although there is precedent for releasing ethics reports after a lawmaker has resigned from Congress, the committee faced immense pressure from Gaetz’s allies not to do so.

Still, multiple senators, including Republicans, had expressed skepticism at his selection for AG and said they were interested in the committee’s findings. Details about two women’s testimony to the committee had also begun to emerge, including that he was accused of having sex with a 17-year-old in 2017, further endangering Gaetz’s chances at confirmation — and threatening his reputation. (A friend of the 17-year-old testified that she did not think Gaetz knew her friend was a minor at the time, her lawyer told NBC News.)

Gaetz met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday in an effort to win their support. But he and Trump may have ultimately decided that there was no easy or realistic path to Gaetz’s confirmation without risking the committee’s report — or at least some of its findings — being made public.

Gaetz, who won re-election on Nov. 5, has not elaborated on his plans for the future. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called on the state’s secretary of state to schedule a special election to fill Gaetz’s congressional seat, but that hasn’t happened yet as of Thursday afternoon.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

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