Matt Gaetz withdraws from Attorney General nomination; won’t return to Congress

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said he is removing himself from the Attorney General nomination.

Update: 1:20 p.m. ET, Nov. 22: Gaetz said he will not return to Congress after submitting his resignation when he was selected as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as Attorney General, CNN reported.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” he told Charlie Kirk on Friday.

Gaetz had stepped down the day he was selected, despite being recently re-elected to the seat.

Original report: CNN was first to report the news on Thursday morning with The Associated Press confirming the information.

Gaetz said he made the decision after meeting with senators on Wednesday, writing in a post on X, “While the momentum was strong, 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. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

The distraction that Gaetz referenced may have been the House Ethics Committee report that included allegations of “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,” CNN reported. He has denied all wrongdoing.

The woman who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was only 17, told the committee that they had sex twice and that the second encounter, which was not previously reported in the media before today, included another woman. She also testified about both incidents in a civil disposition in a related lawsuit, CNN reported.

The investigation in all accounts ended when Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress, the AP reported. The committee voted on Wednesday not to release the investigation results, but will meet on Dec. 5 to vote on the final report, CNN reported. Gaetz was also investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the Department of Justice, the same department Trump tapped him to lead, but charges were not filed.

There is no word if he could change his mind on his resignation, now that he is not in contention for the Attorney General job, CNN reported on air.

Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after Gaetz’s decision was announced, “He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect.”

Trump shocked many with the nomination as Gaetz was not among the short list of those Trump was supposedly considering, the AP reported.

Trump, writing on Truth Social when he made the nomination initially, said Gaetz would “root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

Gaetz called himself “an outspoken conservative firebrand” in his House biography. He said he “has been a prominent voice for uncovering corruption within the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and was “fighting to advance former President Trump’s America First agenda.”

Gaetz was the impetus that led to the upheaval of the House of Representatives when he moved to remove then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the leadership role. McCarthy then backed a primary challenger by paying for commercials that accused Gaetz of paying for sex with a 17-year-old. The challenger’s campaign failed to unseat Gaetz.

Gaetz graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary sciences. He holds a Juris Doctorate from William & Mary Law School, his official biography said.

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