ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz is under fire from the leader of an Orlando-based conservative legal group who called the former Florida congressman morally and professionally unqualified for the job.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, wrote a scathing critique of the firebrand politician, taking issue with Gaetz’s limited legal experience and a persistent cloud of “serious allegations of sex parties and drugs.” He urged Gaetz to withdraw his name from consideration.

“He has no experience to even find his way around a courtroom let alone lead the nation’s largest law firm,” Staver said in an interview Friday.

The Liberty Counsel is a Christian group with a mission of “advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family.”

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday selected Gaetz to be the next U.S. attorney general, nominating a loyal GOP ally who, he wrote, would “Restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”

But he also picked a divisive candidate disliked by many in his own party.

Staver, a Trump supporter, said he could not back that choice.

“Gaetz should do President Trump and all of America a favor and withdraw his name from consideration,” Staver said in the statement published on Liberty Counsel’s website. “This will save him considerable embarrassment. America deserves better.”

Gaetz’s resignation from Congress on Wednesday halted a House ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. The ethics panel was expected to take up the case on Friday, but it no longer has jurisdiction with Gaetz’s departure. Pressure is mounting for the panel’s findings to be released, a move that would be unusual but not without precedent.

For two years, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated allegations that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl. Charges were never brought, and Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Justice Department officials didn’t explain their decision.

Gaetz reiterated his position in an X post on Friday, writing “lies were weaponized to try to destroy me.” He added, “I focused on the truth and doing my job.”

Gaetz has a checkered history in Central Florida. He was friends with former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex-trafficking and other charges and is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence. Gaetz’s name emerged during the Greenberg probe, promoting investigators to look into whether Gaetz had sex with an underage girl and used illicit drugs.

Staver has been at the forefront of abortion, gay marriage and religious liberty fights for decades. He argued before the Florida Supreme Court against putting an abortion rights amendment on the 2024 ballot, a measure that went to the voters but failed to get the 60% support it needed to pass.

He also defended Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who made national headlines by citing “God’s authority” as the basis for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Gaetz’s appointment has put a new focus on the sexual misconduct allegations, which first surfaced in 2021. He faces a rocky road to confirmation in the U.S. Senate. Typically, U.S. attorneys general have worked as prosecutors and bring extensive legal experience. Gaetz’s background is mostly in politics, characterized by his unflinching loyalty to Trump.

Gaetz, 42, earned a degree in 2007 from William & Mary Law School and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2008. He briefly worked as a lawyer for the Northwest Florida law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon. The Florida bar suspended his license in 2021 because of unpaid fees, but it was quickly reinstated after news of his delinquent status broke, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.

In 2010, he followed his father, former Senate President Don Gaetz, into the Florida Legislature, serving as a state representative until 2016 when he moved to Congress.

Staver said he is generally supportive of Trump’s nominees, but not Gaetz.

He wrote in his post he was offended by “jokes laced with sexual innuendo” Gaetz made during a speech to conservative leaders, who were mostly Christian.

“This is not the character of the nation’s highest law enforcement officer who is entrusted to uphold the rule of law and prosecute sex traffickers and sex crimes,” Staver said.

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