The Daily Populous Friday November 22nd, 2024 night edition
Authored by telegraph.co.uk and submitted by TheTelegraph

Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to serve as Donald Trump’s attorney general amid accusations he had sex with a 17-year-old girl.

The former Florida representative nomination was one of Mr Trump’s most controversial picks for his future administration.

He has been accused of sex trafficking and sleeping with with a 17-year-old minor, claims which he denies.

Announcing he was withdrawing his name for the role, Mr Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “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.”

He added: “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.”

Mr Gaetz said he remains “fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful president in history.

“I will forever be honoured that president Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will save America.”

Donald Trump posted on Truth Social following the announcement.

He wrote: “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general.

“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.

“Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”

Mr Gaetz’s withdrawal may be seen as a blow to Mr Trump, who had been pushing to install loyalists in his incoming administration.

The appointment was shaping up to be an uphill battle for Mr Gaetz to win enough support from the Senate to secure his confirmation to lead the Department of Justice (DoJ).

His withdrawal comes the day after he met with senators in a bid to drum up House support.

The Floridian, 42, had been the subject of a House Ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and whether he accepted improper gifts.

The committee on Wednesday voted against releasing the investigation.

The report is said to have included documentation which suggested the former congressman had paid two female witnesses in his sexual misconduct investigation more than $10,000, ABC News reported.

Documents obtained by the network showed that between July 2017 and January 2019 Mr Gaetz made 27 payments totalling $10,224.02 to the two witnesses, the network claimed.

The two women reportedly testified that some of the payments were in exchange for sex, ABC said.

Mr Gaetz denies all claims and the federal investigation was closed by the DoJ without bringing any charges against him.

Mr Gaetz is now effectively unemployed after he resigned from Congress shortly after Mr Trump announced his nomination.

His resignation halted the House investigation into the allegations against him and he said at the time he would not take the oath of office in the next Congress.

Mr Gaetz could technically be chosen to fill Marco Rubio’s Florida senate seat, which will be vacant when he takes on the role as secretary of state, but such a move would likely be unpopular.

Under the US constitution and state law, the governor has the power to fill vacancies in the Senate and voters decide who should fill vacancies in Congress.

His withdrawal came as CNN reported the woman at the centre of the allegations claimed she had two sexual encounters with Mr Gaetz at a 2017 party when she was 17.

A source involved in Mr Trump’s transition team told the Washington Post it was believed Mr Gaetz did not have the required votes to be confirmed as attorney general.

“He was going to be the worst confirmation by far, and I don’t think the votes were there,” the source said.

When asked about Mr Gaetz’s withdrawal, Mitch McConnell, the senate minority leader, said he thinks it was “appropriate”.

redditjunky2025 on November 21st, 2024 at 17:49 UTC »

Trump is checking the Sex Offender website for his next candidate.

Commonsense110 on November 21st, 2024 at 17:43 UTC »

So he got nominated, resigned from congress so this investigation couldn’t be released, then withdrew his name for AG once people started pushing to have the investigation still released….and none of this seems suspicious to the Republican supporters?

salchicha_mas_grande on November 21st, 2024 at 17:42 UTC »

He met with individual senators this week behind closed doors. You just know in private Gaetz heard 40 different versions of "no fucking way" from each one.