Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whom Trump today said he will nominate to be his attorney general, has been under federal criminal investigation in the past involving allegations of sex-trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. The investigation did not lead to charges.
Gaetz was notified on Feb. 15, 2023, that he would not be charged. His attorneys told NBC News at the time, “We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and they have determined not to bring any charges against him.”
In 2021, federal investigators also looked into Gaetz’s travel to the Bahamas with women and specifically whether those women were paid to travel for sex, which could violate federal law, a law enforcement official and another person familiar with the matter said.
Investigators were also looking into whether Gaetz and one of his associates used the internet to search for women they could pay for sex, the sources said.
At the time of the reporting, a Gaetz spokesperson said: “Rep. Gaetz has never paid for sex, nor has he had sex with an underage girl. What began with blaring headlines about ‘sex trafficking’ has now turned into a general fishing exercise about vacations and consensual relationships with adults.”
Gaetz was also investigated over allegations he showed fellow members nude photos of women on his phone while on the House floor.
Gaetz is a lawyer, as Trump noted in his announcement, and he is in good standing with the Florida Bar — not that he ever practiced law for very long before he was elected to the Florida House in 2010. The bar briefly labeled him as “delinquent” in 2021 for failing to pay a $265 fee, but it reinstated him, and he remains licensed to practice law in Florida.
A former Trump attorney from his first term also testified during the House Jan. 6 hearings that Gaetz wanted a blanket pardon from the then-president.
Gaetz “wanted a pardon, as I recall, from the beginning of time up until that day, for anything,” Eric Herschmann, an attorney in the Trump White House, told the committee.
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