Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) mentioned Sunday that President-elect Trump’s legal professional common choose, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), is “one of the brightest minds” in Washington.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, Johnson downplayed issues about Gaetz’s nomination and praised him as a reformer.
“Look, Matt Gaetz is a colleague of mine. We’ve been serving together for more than eight years,” Johnson mentioned. “He is one of many brightest minds in Washington or wherever for that matter, and he is aware of all the things about how the Division of Justice has been weaponized and misused.
“And he will be a reformer. And I think that’s why the establishment in Washington is so shaken up about this pick,” Johnson mentioned.
Trump tapped Gaetz for the highest legislation enforcement spot within the nation, prompting concern amongst even some Republican senators concerning the president-elect’s alternative.
The Ethics panel has for years been investigating Gaetz, exploring whether or not he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, amongst different allegations. He has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the Division of Justice, which beforehand investigated whether or not he had intercourse with a 17-year-old, declined to cost him with a criminal offense.
That Ethics Committee investigation, nevertheless, got here to an abrupt finish Wednesday, when Gaetz resigned from the Home shortly after Trump nominated him to function legal professional common. The Ethics panel doesn’t have jurisdiction over former members of Congress.
It stays unknown what path the panel will observe with its Gaetz report. Some Republican senators have pushed for the Senate Judiciary panel to be granted entry to the report and the probe’s findings as they undergo the vetting course of.
Johnson has mentioned it’s not throughout the Ethics Committee’s energy to launch the report as a result of Gaetz is a former member, not a present one.
“Well, look, I hope that the Ethics Committee will stick by our tradition and protocol for the reasons I just articulated. I think this would take us down a path there where I don’t know how we’d return. If the House Ethics Committee and its resources, which are significant, substantial, could be used to investigate people who are not in the House, then where would that end?” Johnson requested Bream.
“I mean, people could weaponize that function of government as well,” he mentioned. “The reason that Matt Gaetz is such an exciting pick to so many people is because he will go in and reform the department of justice. It desperately needs it.”
