Congress still stunned after Trump picks Matt Gaetz as attorney general: Live updates

Donald Trump has announced he’s going to nominate former Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general.

In a statement, the president-elect praised Gaetz, 42, who has frequently defended Trump and criticized the various criminal and congressional probes against the Republican.

“On the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of DOJ, Matt played a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic Government Corruption and Weaponization,” Trump wrote on Wednesday, calling Gaetz a “Champion for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”

Gaetz has faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing of his own, including a federal sex trafficking probe that ended without charges against him and a House ethics inquiry.

Here’s what you need to know about Gaetz, who was once dubbed the “Trumpiest Congressman” in Washington:

Sen Bill Hagerty of Tennessee told Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC, “It’s amazing that you are more upset about allegations than you are about the weaponization” of the Department of Justice when asked about the litany of personal allegations against Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz.

Former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin wrote on X that she hopes “those around Trump will try to keep him focused on what the American public voted for him to do: bring down the cost of living and secure the border.”

“The crazy cabinet picks with focus on revenge are a distraction from what Trump was hired to do and is best at,” she added.

The trial of a January 6 rioter has been delayed as a federal judge in Washington awaits possible pardons from President-elect Donald Trump.

Judge Rudolph Contreras agreed to delay the trial of 38-year-old Kansas State University doctoral student William Pope, who stands accused of attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Pope has argued the trial could be moot as he expects to be pardoned.

It appeared to be the first time that a jurist has delayed a trial after a request from a defendant expecting to be pardoned, according to The New York Times.

Texas Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that he wants to see the House Ethics Committee report into AG nominee Matt Gaetz.

“I can’t understand any situation under which we would deny ourselves access to full and complete information,” Cornyn said, according to Punchbowl. “Part of this is not only to determine fitness for the nominee, it’s also to protect the president. Because there may be information that the investigation would find forthcoming that would ultimately be an embarrassment to the president. So this is for all of the above reasons, we need to get access to everything.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper was among those to express his shock at some of the picks for Donald Trump’s coming administration, describing the top item as words he had “never contemplated using before.”

“Welcome to The Lead, I’m Jake Tapper,” he said. “Let me begin the show by uttering some words that I never contemplated using together before. And those words are: U.S. Attorney General Matt Gaetz.”

A Secret Service agent assigned to Barack Obama’s detail has been fired for allegedly inviting his girlfriend to the former president’s Hawaii beach house and suggesting they have sex in Michelle Obama’s bathroom.

Koryeah Dwanyen, the girlfriend of the unnamed security official known only as “Dale”, detailed the incident in her self-published memoir, Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma.

According to the exposé, the agent sent Dwanyen “several photographs” of the former first family’s sprawling beachfront mansion, a week before inviting her over to the property on November 6 2022 while they were away.

James Liddell reports.

Gaetz’s nomination to be Trump’s attorney general continues to stun Republicans and Democrats.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried called Gaetz’s nomination a “living nightmare.”

“Donald Trump is raiding our state for any Florida Man loyal to him, no matter how incompetent, unqualified, or extreme they may be,” Fried said in a statement. “Tapping Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor is a serious cause for concern, but nominating Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is beyond catastrophic for the country.”

Former GOP Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois told The Independent that “no one should be surprised” by Gaetz’s nomination.

“F*** ‘em,” Walsh said. “This is what America voted for.”

“Are you s****ing me?” Republican Representative Mike Simpson told The Hill when they informed him of the news.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis also told reporters on Capitol Hill: “I’m sure it’ll make for a popcorn-eating confirmation.”

Read more about the reaction below.