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President-elect Donald Trump’s alternative of Floridian firebrand Matt Gaetz for Legal professional Normal has despatched shockwaves by way of the Division of Justice and the remainder of Washington. The previous congressman is now girding for what guarantees to be a rough-and-tumble affirmation battle.
Gaetz, 42, who had represented Florida’s first congressional district since January 2017, resigned from his protected Home seat shortly after Trump introduced that he’d be nominating him to be the nation’s prime regulation enforcement officer.
The previous Home Freedom Caucus member’s snap determination to stop the place he’d held for seven years seemed to be engineered to deep-six the discharge of what has been reported to be a scathing report from the Home Ethics Committee. That report considerations allegations that he used illicit medication and engaged in {sex} with underage ladies throughout his early years within the Home.
Such allegations had been swirling round Gaetz for years, primarily within the type of leaks relating to a long-running Division of Justice investigation which resulted in February 2023 with none charges being filed in opposition to him. The ethics investigation, which had been put in abeyance whereas the DOJ investigation moved ahead, picked up velocity as soon as once more and had been set to conclude with the report’s launch final week. Evidently, the discharge didn’t occur. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
Gaetz’s controversies, mixed along with his key position in throwing the decrease chamber into chaos final October by defenestrating then-Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy utilizing a not often employed procedural maneuver, have made him a pariah amongst many in his social gathering. However he has nonetheless remained widespread with Trump. Certainly, the Floridian has at all times been one of many president-elect’s fiercest defenders.
Trump is dead-set on selecting Gaetz to guide the Division of Justice due to Gaetz’s steadfast loyalty and his said want to precise revenge on the nation’s regulation enforcement equipment after years of what he describes as political persecution (or what most authorized consultants name legit federal investigations that resulted in unprecedented felony indictments in opposition to him.) Most Democrats and even a number of Republicans within the Home and Senate have steered that the drumbeat of scandal surrounding the previous congressman turned Legal professional Normal-designate might sink his possibilities. Different commentators have dismissed Gaetz — who has by no means tried a single case in court docket, regardless of having a regulation degree from the School of William and Mary in Virginia — as a dilettante who’d weaponize the Justice Division on Trump’s behalf.
However a more in-depth have a look at Gaetz’s file in Congress presents a extra nuanced image.
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Matt Gaetz is considerably of a pariah in his personal social gathering, however has at all times been loyal to Trump (AP)
Whereas he was a continuing and bombastic defender of Trump and a party-line Republican vote on the Home ground, the Home Freedom Caucus member has typically sided with or teamed up alongside Democrats on points he’d have purview over if confirmed as Merrick Garland’s successor.
One space the place Gaetz might use his newfound place to deliver a couple of sea change in federal regulation enforcement is on drug coverage. The Legal professional Normal supervises the Drug Enforcement Administration and workout routines vital affect over which medication are successfully outlawed by being positioned on “Schedule I” — a authorized definition of gear with no accepted medical use and a excessive potential for dependancy.
Republicans have historically been drug warriors who prioritize enforcement above all. But when confirmed, Gaetz might use his workplace to proceed the work begun beneath the Biden administration to decriminalize and reschedule marijuana.
In Might, Garland introduced a proposed regulation to reclassify marijuana beneath Schedule III of the Managed Substances Act following a scientific assessment by the Division of Well being and Human Companies. That might successfully finish roughly a half-century of “war” on the substance by federal drug enforcement authorities.
Morgan Fox, the political director for the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Legal guidelines, informed The Unbiased in a cellphone interview that Gaetz “has been one of the most supportive cannabis or cannabis policy reform advocates in Congress” amongst Republicans.
“I think that his appointment to that position would not only ensure that the current scheduling, petition and review process continues to move forward at pace, but hopefully even faster, because generally, these things have taken years to roll through the motions,” Fox mentioned.
Fox added that Gaetz might formally reinstate a Division of Justice coverage first promulgated in 2013 — however rescinded in 2017 beneath then-attorney normal Jeff Classes — beneath which the division declined to prosecute violations of marijuana legal guidelines in states the place the drug had been legalized besides beneath very particular circumstances.
Gaetz might additionally push the division to say no to prosecute violations of regulation with respect to psychedelics — medication akin to MDMA (ecstasy) and different hallucinogenic substances which might be recognized to have potential as remedies for melancholy and Submit-Traumatic Stress Dysfunction. Veterans teams and incapacity consultants have been asking for extra entry to those substances, that are at the moment solely legally out there abroad.
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Most Democrats and even a number of Republicans within the Home and Senate have steered that the drumbeat of scandal surrounding the previous congressman turned Legal professional Normal-designate might sink his possibilities (AP)
Jesse Gould, an Military Ranger veteran who based the Therapeutic Hearts Mission to assist veterans acquire entry to such remedies, informed The Unbiased that Gaetz has been one among a lot of Republican members of Congress who’ve been working throughout the aisle to push for the federal authorities to increase entry to the medication they are saying are a lifeline for struggling veterans and a possible answer to an epidemic of veteran suicides. He mentioned the previous Florida congressman might use his authority as AG to push for the DEA to reschedule MDMA in the identical method it has been working to schedule marijuana.
“I appreciate him and others who have … stepped out in front and brought this into the public discourse, into the public conversation,” he mentioned.
Gaetz has additionally made unlikely allies throughout Capitol Hill along with his advocacy for stronger antitrust enforcement by the chief department.
He’s been described as a “Khan-servitive” for his steadfast assist of Biden administration Federal Commerce Fee boss Lina Khan, even because the Democratic regulator has drawn ire from a lot of the enterprise neighborhood for her aggressive method to policing company mergers and going after monopolies. And he was one among a lot of Republicans behind a failed legislative push to constrain Large Tech energy early on in President Joe Biden’s time period.
On the similar time, Gaetz has additionally been a constant critic of presidents from each events in terms of use of limitless presidential warfare powers. He’s been a constant sponsor of bills to rescind the authorizations to be used of navy pressure which have underpinned a lot of the International Struggle on Terror, and in early 2020 he was one among solely three Home Republicans who backed a decision to restrict Trump’s capacity to make use of navy pressure in opposition to Iran.
He additionally teamed up with Democrats in what has so far been a failed effort to enact stronger limits on inventory buying and selling amongst members of Congress. Certainly, Gaetz was the primary Home Republican to announce that he wouldn’t settle for marketing campaign contributions from political motion committees. He made the announcement in a speech to the 2020 Conservative Political Motion Convention, throughout which he mentioned “honest capitalism” was “under attack by special interests and political action committees in the swamp of Washington, DC.”
Consultant Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who served alongside Gaetz on the Home Judiciary Committee and sometimes discovered himself on the identical facet of his now-former colleague on antitrust and warfare powers points, informed The Unbiased that the Senate ought to query Gaetz on “all of his views” along with investigating the allegations in opposition to him. He additionally mentioned Gaetz shouldn’t battle the discharge of the Ethics Committee report on his conduct.
“I think he should explain his work on war powers and whether he would be a voice against going to war in Iran. He should explain whether he would recommend someone like Lina Khan to be appointed. He should explain what his views are on reforming pacts and lobbyist money. He should explain what his views are on political retribution and firing career appointees, and I think he should be open … to letting the ethics report come out,” he mentioned. “Because if he’s always for transparency, why not let it out there and then make the case?”
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One other Democrat with whom Gaetz labored on efforts to ban inventory buying and selling by members, New York Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mentioned it’s essential to ensure the subsequent legal professional normal “doesn’t have a conflict of interest in their role” and known as for “any pertinent information that would either clear him of wrongdoing or substantiate” the allegations in opposition to Gaetz to come back out (Copyright 2024 The Related Press. All rights reserved.)
One other Democrat with whom Gaetz labored on efforts to ban inventory buying and selling by members, New York Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mentioned it’s essential to ensure the subsequent legal professional normal “doesn’t have a conflict of interest in their role” and known as for “any pertinent information that would either clear him of wrongdoing or substantiate” the allegations in opposition to Gaetz to come back out.
Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke to The Unbiased exterior the Capitol on Tuesday alongside her French bulldog, Deco, mentioned there have been “certainly” points “in which there is overlap” between her and her former colleague. However she burdened that “very basic vetting” ought to take priority over any examination of Gaetz’s political positions.
Her Home Progressive Caucus colleague, Consultant Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, mentioned “the big challenge” in coping with any cupboard nomination “is always about what somebody does when they’re actually in power.”
Requested about Gaetz’s historical past of siding with Democrats on key points, she mentioned she doesn’t know the place he stands on “the question of independence of the Department of Justice”. However she burdened that she and Gaetz have “absolutely have worked together” on “an important and narrow set of issues” together with warfare powers, antitrust and reform of the International Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“I hope, if he somehow ends up in this position, maybe he won’t change his position on those,” she mentioned.
