Matt Gaetz pitches Senators to back his AG nomination

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has launched an effort to personally secure his embattled nomination, meeting behind closed doors Wednesday with Republican senators who have heard questions about the sexual misconduct and other allegations against him.

As Gaetz and senators holed up near the Senate, members of the House Ethics Committee was also meeting privately to discuss the findings of a long-running investigation of their former colleague, which they ultimately chose not to release.

At least one Republican senator decried the “lynch mob” forming against Gaetz, who if confirmed would become the nation’s top law enforcement official.

“I’m not going to legitimize the process to destroy the man because people don’t like his politics,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham as he left the private senators’ meeting .

“He deserves a chance to make his argument why he should be attorney general,” Graham said. “No rubber stamp, no lynch mob.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, who is supportive of Gaetz’s nomination, emerged saying, “If you have concerns, that’s fine. But don’t make up your mind yet. Let the guy testify first.”

As the senators met in the out-of-the-way Strom Thurmond Room, Hawley said Gaetz was in a “cheerful” mood. The former Florida congressman met with different senators over the course of about four hours.

It’s the start of a personal push by Gaetz, who has long denied the mounting allegations against him, to shore up the Senate support needed to be confirmed as the nation’s attorney general. He brings with him wide-ranging proposals to rid the Department of Justice of those perceived by Trump to have “weaponized” their work against the president-elect, his allies and conservatives in general.

Gaetz is being shepherded by Vice President-elect JD Vance, an Ohio senator. His meeting with Senate allies was largely a strategy session where he emphasized the need to get a hearing where he could lay out his and Trump’s vision for the Justice Department.

At the same time, attorneys involved in a civil case brought by a Gaetz associate were notified this week that an unauthorized person accessed a file shared between lawyers that included unredacted depositions from a woman who has said Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17, and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats sent a letter Wednesday asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide to the panel “the complete evidentiary file,” including the forms memorializing interviews ”in the closed investigation of former Congressman Matt Gaetz’s alleged sex trafficking of minors.”

Gaetz has said the department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.

As soon as the new Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2025, when Republicans take majority control, senators are expected to begin holding hearings on Trump’s nominees, with voting possible on Inauguration Day Jan. 20.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.