Gaetz' Bad Boy image finally catches up with him

TALLAHASSEE — Matt Gaetz’ knack for courting controversy has finally caught up with him.

The right-wing firebrand, political prankster, steadfast Trump defender and party animal stepped down as the president-elect’s choice for Attorney General once it was made clear to him he didn’t have the needed support in the U.S. Senate.

Senators on both sides of the aisle had reacted to the former Florida congressman’s nomination with shock, with one calling him “a not serious candidate” and others demanding more details about the sex scandals swirling around him for the past few years.

After being asked Thursday to comment on a report that a 17-year-old girl had sex with him twice at a former lawmaker’s house party in Seminole County in 2017, Gaetz bowed out so he would not “unfairly become a distraction” for President-elect Donald Trump.

Even without the allegations of sexual misconduct, Gaetz was an unusual choice for attorney general, experts said. He had the least amount of legal experience of any nominee since the end of World War II.

“His background doesn’t look anything like other attorney generals going back to Eisenhower. It makes no sense,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond and expert on federal courts and the judicial selection process.

Most presidents have picked attorney generals with vast professional and legal experience because they run an agency of 40 separate divisions, including the Office of Solicitor General, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Prisons, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Tobias said.

“I don’t think he even appreciates how the DOJ works,” Tobias said.

Gaetz’s reputation for trolling enemies on social media and insulting fellow members of Congress on conservative talk shows left him with few allies in Washington, D.C.

In one of his most high-profile actions, Gaetz wore a gas mask on the House floor while Congress voted on a multi-billion dollar bill to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The big picture for Gaetz is that all his questionable behavior, actions and statements have caught up with him finally,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “For a long time it seemed like they would not because he had the president elect’s ear.”

And now, his political future depends on Trump’s continued support.

Trump didn’t waste any time replacing Gaetz with fellow Floridian Pam Bondi, a former state attorney general who is a more likable yet equally dedicated Trump loyalist without the same amount of baggage as Gaetz.

But Trump took to his own Truth Social platform to praise Gaetz, saying he had “much respect” for his decision to step down. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!” Trump said.

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a fellow Republican from Florida and Trump supporter, posted on X that Gaetz was the victim of a media smear, and feared facing the same kind of brutal grilling as Justice Brett Kavanaugh endured six years ago.

Gaetz ended speculation Friday that he would return to his Florida District 1 Congressional seat when the new session begins in January by saying that eight years was enough and it was time to move on to new things.

“Usually at some point the president or nominee realizes it is not going to happen,” Jewett said. “Instead of forcing the issue and airing dirty laundry out in public they withdraw. That appears to be what happened.”

Typically, presidents nominate attorney generals who have extensive experience, often as judges or prosecutors, as they will be overseeing the world’s largest law office, with more than 115,000 employees.

Gaetz graduated from the College of William and Mary law school in 2007 and started working at the Fort Walton Beach law firm of Larry Keefe, who was Trump’s appointee as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida during his first term and is Florida’s public safety czar for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As a junior lawyer, Gaetz handled mostly run-of-the-mill cases. The Okaloosa County court records show him handling about two cases a year in his home county. His first two cases were traffic infractions, and he also worked on debt and contract disputes, negligence and workers compensation claims. One case involved a homeowners association in its dispute against Walton County over the location of a beach volleyball net, records show.

After less than a year as a lawyer, Gaetz was pulled over for speeding in his father’s BMW and arrested for drunk driving. He refused to take a breathalyzer test and the charges against him were dropped.

He’s been casual about maintaining his practice, Florida Bar records show. He had his license suspended for failing to pay his fees in 2021 but it was reinstated when he paid up. He also was cited for not keeping up with his continuing legal education requirements in 2023. And he was cited two years in a row for not being up to date on his trust account reports.

In 2010, Gaetz ran as a Tea Party Republican and was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. His financial disclosure form said he earned $29,000 from his legal practice that year.

He spent his time defending Florida’s controversial “stand-your-ground” law and railing against the Affordable Care Act and Medicare. But he was instrumental in getting Florida’s medical marijuana law passed.

He quickly got a reputation for lashing out against his political enemies in Florida and that expanded when he went to D.C.

He was investigated by the Florida Bar for an incendiary tweet accusing Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney and head of the Trump Organization, of infidelity. The House Ethics Committee admonished Gaetz for his comments.

He also received a letter from the Florida Bar advising him that a comment he made about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was inappropriate. He took down the post and apologized.

When Gaetz criticized former Florida Rep. Chris Latvala, a fellow Republican, for meeting with the Rev. Al Sharpton in 2020, Latvala accused Gaetz of starting a sex game where lawmakers earned points for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists and married lawmakers.

The game had been reported by the Miami Herald in 2017 but it wasn’t until 2020 that Latvala connected the game to Gaetz – who denied the accusation.

As a freshman congressman in 2017, he raised eyebrows when he cast the lone vote against an anti-human trafficking bill. And his decision to wear the gas mask on the floor earned him condemnation from many quarters.

Even more bizarre, in 2020 an unmarried Gaetz at the time shocked fellow members of Congress with the revelation that he had an “adopted” son, a Cuban immigrant whose mother had died of cancer and was the brother of Gaetz’ girlfriend at the time.

“His temperament or personality just doesn’t fit the role. He’s never been a serious guy,” Jewett said. “His thing is firing up the base, getting media attention and likes on social media. That is not typically what you want in an Attorney General. That doubled with the ethical and legal clouds are a terrible fit.”

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