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From: Auric Hellman <adhellman1@gmail.com>
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Subject: Matt Gaetz Is Barely a Lawyer
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2024 22:58:06 -0500
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Typically, appointees for the job of U.S. attorney general have had long 
careers working in law and law enforcement. But that’s not the case for 
Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being tapped 
as President-elect Donald Trump’s new attorney general.

Aside from being the subject of a recent criminal investigation himself, 
Gaetz has limited familiarity with the workings of the federal Justice 
Department — and conspicuously little experience actually using his law 
degree.

In announcing Gaetz as his pick to lead the DOJ, Trump praised him as a 
“deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.” But Gaetz barely ever practiced 
law before going into politics, having followed his father into the 
Florida state legislature less than three years after passing the bar. 
Gaetz spent that time not as a prosecutor, but as a junior associate at 
a small litigation firm near where he grew up.

This kind of resume may seem disqualifying for someone vying to run the 
DOJ, and it may doom Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed — if his 
unresolved ethics scandal and general unpopularity among the Republican 
ranks don’t preclude him outright. But after burning through attorneys 
general in his first administration, Trump just wants a loyalist in the 
position, even if that means one whose last court appearance was more 
than a decade ago.

Gaetz graduated from William and Mary Law School in Virginia in 2007, 
and he was admitted to the Florida Bar in February 2008, according to 
state records. Before running for an open state House seat in early 
2010, Gaetz worked briefly for a Florida law firm.

“Many know Matt from his work in the courtroom in support of the Eglin 
AFB F-35 beddown,” boasts his website, a reference to a stunty lawsuit 
Gaetz filed against the city of Valparaiso. The city was suing the U.S. 
Air Force in federal court over noise from F-35 fighter jets, and Gaetz 
jumped in with a bizarre demand that a local judge order Valparaiso to 
halt its federal lawsuit. Valparaiso and the Air Force ultimately 
settled, and a judge rejected Gaetz’s argument, reminding him that state 
courts are “completely without power” to do what he asked under basic 
constitutional tenets. Valparaiso’s former mayor was emphatic that Gaetz 
had “absolutely nothing to do” with the issue getting resolved, but 
Gaetz made it part of his campaign mythology regardless.

Since leaving practice to follow his father into the Florida legislature 
in 2010, Gaetz has kept his law license active. In 2019, by which time 
he had won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Florida 
state bar announced it was investigating Gaetz over a vaguely 
threatening tweet he sent about Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who 
was set to testify before the House oversight committee the next day.

Gaetz deleted the tweet and apologized, and a Florida disciplinary 
committee let him off with a stern letter that chided him for a tweet 
that “was unprofessional, reckless, insensitive, and demonstrated poor 
judgment.”

After the January 6 insurrection, dozens of Gaetz’s law school 
classmates and other William and Mary Law School alumni signed a letter 
calling on him to resign from Congress for trying to obstruct the 
electoral vote count and spreading the lie that some who stormed the 
Capitol were antifa “masquerading as Trump supporters.”

Later that year, Gaetz briefly had his law license suspended for 
delinquent fees to the Florida Bar. “Congressman Gaetz is no longer 
actively engaged in the practice of law,” his spokesperson said at the 
time to explain the lapse. “He is focused on representing his 
constituents in Congress, not the courtroom.” Still, he quickly paid the 
late fees and lifted the suspension.

In March 2021, news broke that Gaetz was under investigation by the DOJ 
for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, which he has 
repeatedly denied. One of Trump’s aides testified that Gaetz asked for a 
presidential pardon, which Trump did not give before leaving office.

The House ethics committee opened its own review soon after, which was 
put on hold until the Justice Department closed its inquiry without 
filing charges against Gaetz in early 2023. Gaetz’s abrupt resignation 
this week brought the ethics investigation to a halt. But ahead of a 
possible confirmation battle, senators from both parties are demanding 
access to the committee’s report, which is reportedly “highly damaging.”

Further details may emerge from an ongoing push by the Miami Herald to 
unseal materials in a federal civil case related to the allegations. 
These include deposition transcripts in which alleged trafficking 
victims claim that Gaetz attended a sex party, which Gaetz also denied.

If confirmed as attorney general — which plenty put at long odds — Gaetz 
stands to be the least qualified person in modern memory to become the 
nation’s top law enforcement official. But he will also do exactly as 
Trump tells him, which is all Trump needs.


https://theintercept.com/2024/11/15/matt-gaetz-attorney-general-lawyer/



-- 
Dr. Auric D. Hellman
adhellman1@gmail.com