Trump Picks Far-Right Loyalist Matt Gaetz to Be AG as He Moves to Weaponize DOJ Against "Enemies"

[Uncle Joe]

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated far-right Florida Congressmember Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general. The selection of Gaetz, a staunch Trump loyalist, appears to signify Trump's intent to weaponize the Department of Justice to target political enemies. Gaetz has "no appreciable law enforcement experience," says Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has sued the federal government for access to a DOJ investigation into allegations that Gaetz was involved in the sex trafficking of an underage girl. That investigation was not made public, and no federal charges were filed, but the House Ethics Committee launched its own inquiry into Gaetz, the status of which is now up in the air after Gaetz resigned on Wednesday. If approved as attorney general, Gaetz is likely to "take an ax to the nonpartisan functioning of the Justice Department," warns Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at _Vox_. "His chief qualification … is his willingness to do whatever Donald Trump needs to be done." We also discuss the status of various other legal issues swirling around Trump and his supporters, including the Justice Department probes into Trump, the potential pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists and if Trump will abuse the presidential power of recess appointments when he takes office.

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