Matt Gaetz Is Unfit to be Attorney General

As promised, here is Part 2 of my expose on Matt Gaetz. The allegations about his personal and professional behavior are so lurid and grotesque that I thought you might need to take a long hot shower to “clean off the crud” after reading Part 1.

Aside from the host of sexual accusations – most of which have been meticulously documented – here is a litany of other sleazy behavior involving former Rep. Gaetz, who was nominated this week by President Trump to be Attorney General.

In 2008, Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence while driving home from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island in Florida. According to the police reports, Gaetz was noticeably intoxicated but initially denied that he had been drinking. He later admitted to drinking two beers, but after failing two eye tests, Gaetz refused to take a field sobriety test or a breathalyzer test after his arrest.

Gaetz’s driver’s license was reinstated after less than the customary one-year suspension and no criminal charges were filed despite his refusal to take the aforementioned tests. Not-so-coincidentally, Matt’s father Don was a Florida State Senator at the time and later served as Senate President.

Perhaps that is how Matt got off so easy… and maybe that is how he got elected to the Florida State House in 2010.

In his first campaign, Gaetz received almost $480,000 in contributions, roughly five times more than anyone else in the field and almost 50 times more than his Democratic opponent, Jan Fernald. Gaetz also contributed $100,000 of his own money (when he was just 28 years old).

Sounds a little sketchy to me!

In 2015, after having successfully blocked the bill previously, Gaetz was one of only two Florida House members to vote against a bill criminalizing revenge porn (shades of things to come?)

The following year, Gaetz decided to run for his father’s State Senate seat when Don Gaetz was term-limited but withdrew from the race to run for the U.S. House of Representatives instead. Although a financial disclosure form showed that he had a net worth of just $388,000, Gaetz somehow donated $200,000 of his own money to his successful congressional campaign. At the same time, Gaetz resigned from two House political action committees he had started and chaired. Subsequently, the two PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose sole purpose was to support Gaetz's congressional campaign.

Legal, probably so. Ethical, definitely not.

Once he was seated in the U.S. House of Representatives, it didn’t take Gaetz long to get into trouble. In 2019, on the night before Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee, Gaetz directed a tweet to Cohen “that implied without evidence that Cohen had had multiple extramarital affairs and also suggested his wife might be unfaithful while he was imprisoned due to new information disclosed to her.”

Real classy, huh?

Amidst sharp criticism from other members of Congress, Gaetz deleted the tweet and later offered an apology, but the matter was referred to the House Ethics Committee and criminal prosecutors for possible witness intimidation and tampering. Fortunately for Gaetz, no charges were filed, and he dodged yet another legal bullet.

The following year, Gaetz was investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics for using nearly $200,000 of taxpayer funds to rent an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer, restaurateur, and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client of Gaetz. Despite House rules explicitly forbidding below-market rentals for possible political considerations, both Gaetz and Merrill admitted to the discounted deal, but no formal disciplinary actions were taken.

An emboldened Gaetz engaged in yet more questionable activities later that same month, spending $28,000 on speech-writing services, something that is expressly prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials. Gaetz later said that it was a clerical error that he would fix.

Around the same time, Gaetz paid (from campaign funds) to have a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida for the junior Gaetz to use as needed.

You really can’t make this stuff up!

There are many more accusations and allegations concerning Matthew Louis Gaetz II, but time and space won’t allow me to go into the details. Instead, I want to finish with an analysis of his votes as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on bills targeting human trafficking.

On December 19, 2017, Gaetz was the only representative to vote against the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act, a bill allocating additional government resources to help combat human trafficking. He said it was because he is a small government proponent. Then, on February 27, 2018, Gaetz voted against the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which had been combined with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. Despite his opposition, the bill passed with bipartisan support, 388-25.

Finally, on July 26, 2022, Gaetz voted against the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, which passed 401–20.

One might ask why Matt Gaetz, who wants to be the chief law enforcement officer in America, would oppose three different pieces of legislation meant to end human trafficking… unless, of course, he had a vested interest?

One might also ask why President Trump would nominate a man with such a shady background who is almost sure to fail Senate confirmation? My guess is that President Trump is rewarding Gaetz for his past (and future) loyalties by helping him avoid the House Ethics Committee’s investigation that was picking up steam before his "timely" resignation on Wednesday.

Look for Gaetz to withdraw his nomination well before the Senate hearings and to be replaced by a far more qualified nominee. May I suggest Trey Gowdy, a man of integrity with impeccable credentials?