What’s going on with Matt Gaetz? The hack and allegations surrounding Trump’s attorney general pick, explained.
What to know about allegations against Matt Gaetz, new details in the reported testimony hack, and where he stands with approval to be the next attorney general.
Update: On Thursday Gaetz announced he was withdrawing from consideration for the attorney general position.
A hacker reportedly has “damaging” evidence against Matt Gaetz, the former U.S. representative from Florida and controversial pick by President-elect Donald Trump to be the country’s top law enforcement officer.
An unidentified hacker accessed secure evidence shared among lawyers representing clients who claim Gaetz had sex with a woman when she was a minor, according to the New York Times.
It’s the latest development regarding allegations against Gaetz that first surfaced in 2020, during the first Trump administration, and comes in the weeks leading up to his proposed takeover of the very department that once investigated him.
Here’s what to know about the allegations, the hack, and what could happen next.
What are the allegations against Matt Gaetz?
Gaetz, who has been involved in politics since 2010 and was elected to the U.S. House in 2016, is at the center of several allegations that could keep him from serving as attorney general, including a long-running investigation into claims involving sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and ethical issues like abusing special privileges.
A woman who attended a party that Gaetz also went to in 2017 testified to the House Ethics Committee that she saw Gaetz, then a congressman, having sex with a minor, according to her lawyer, Joel Leppard. Leppard said Monday that Gaetz paid the witness, along with another woman, to have sex with him. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
What’s the status of the investigation?
A Justice Department probe into allegations that he obstructed justice and violated sex-trafficking laws closed last year. No criminal charges were filed.
Will the House ethics report be released?
After Gaetz was nominated by Trump for the attorney general position, he resigned from Congress, bringing into question the report’s scope since he is not subject to the ethics panel anymore.
Still, there has been a push from primarily Democratic senators for the House ethics panel to release the report ahead of Gaetz’s confirmation hearing. The House ethics panel — which has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans — is set to meet Wednesday and vote on whether to consider releasing the report.
If the report is released to senators, it’s unclear if it would be made public.
U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.) told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he believed senators should have access to the report but that whether it should be made public would be part of negotiations. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said he didn’t think the report should be made public since Gaetz is no longer a House member.
What’s going on with the Matt Gaetz evidence hack?
An unidentified hacker accessed a computer file shared among lawyers whose clients have given “damaging testimony” related to Gaetz, according to the New York Times.
The file has 24 exhibits, including sworn testimony by the woman who claimed Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17, and the corroborating witness testimony. The Times says a person with the alias Altam Beezley downloaded the file at 1:23 p.m. Monday. When a lawyer attempted to reach out to an email address associated with Beezley, the email bounced back.
Documents accessed in the hack include information under seal with the Justice Department from its investigation and the separate House Ethics Committee inquiry. The material does not appear to have been made public by the hacker, according to the Times.
Will Matt Gaetz be confirmed?
It’s hard to say.
Even Trump has admitted that Gaetz’s odds may be low, the New York Times reported, with Trump reportedly calling senators personally to ask them to confirm the former representative.
According to NPR, Republicans will hold 53 seats in the Senate after the recent election, meaning Gaetz can lose only three votes from his own party if he hopes to be confirmed.
Multiple Republican lawmakers have told Trump and his team they believe Gaetz’s chances are slim, Politico reported/, with nearly a dozen Senate Republicans declining to say if they would back Gaetz.
And even if he did garner enough support, Politico noted that the Judiciary Committee requires all nominees to undergo extensive FBI background investigations that would turn up anything in the House ethics report.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.