Former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s stunning withdrawal from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general has rocked Washington, with a slate of potential replacements returning to the fore.
Gaetz, 42, announced on X Thursday afternoon that his pending confirmation fight “was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition” — and pulled his name.
The decision came as a surprise to most GOP insiders after the ex-Florida pol had “positive” meetings with GOP senators on Capitol Hill — but a potentially devastating congressional ethics report on illicit drug use and sexual misconduct hovering in the background.
The House Ethics Committee heard testimony from female witnesses to Gaetz’s alleged drug-fueled sex parties early in his congressional tenure — with two claiming that the Republican lawmaker paid them more than $10,000 for the trysts.
Another female witness alleged that she saw her 17-year-old friend in flagrante delicto with the then-congressman at a July 2017 rager, according to Joel Leppard, an Orlando-based lawyer.
One source spilled to The Post that Gaetz had been passed a private whip count just before his announcement, which showed that he had “no path to confirmation,” and others confirmed that the decision to bow out was fully his.
Now, previous contenders for the nation’s top law enforcement official are being brought back into the discussions at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is holed up with his transition team.
Missouri’s AG Andrew Bailey, who has made his name on high-profile litigation against the Biden administration‘s student debt cancellation and mass migrant flights into the US, as well as big tech companies‘ collusion with federal agencies to suppress free speech, was rumored before the Gaetz nomination to be on Trump’s shortlist, according to GOP insiders.
Less than an hour after the news broke, Bailey increased speculation by posting on X: “Big announcement coming. I will always fight for Missourians’ right to keep and bear arms.”
Staunch Trump ally Mike Davis posted in response — “And he’s great” — implying the Missourian was a favored candidate.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is also considered a contender for the AG role — and would be on a glide path to confirmation given his relationships with members of the upper chamber, other insiders say.
A Senate Judiciary Committee member himself, Lee has been known to carry around a pocket-sized Constitution on Capitol Hill that he’s pulled out in hearings for extra backup.
However, Lee has previously stated no interest in the role and told the Salt Lake City-based Deseret News he was looking “forward to working in the next Congress and with President Trump and his team to implement his agenda.”
One source revealed that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had also impressed the 45th president by being one of the first prosecutors to file a suit alleging election interference after Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
The suit alleged that the swing states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had all unconstitutionally changed voting procedures without legislative approval.
“I think that Trump probably feels a lot of gratitude,” the source said of the move, while indicating that litigation would likely pose a challenge to Paxton getting through the confirmation process.
Sources close to Trump have also suggested that he could plausibly elevate his deputy attorney general-designate, Todd Blanche, to the DOJ’s top spot, or his solicitor general-designate, John Sauer.
But transition team insiders were mum about any imminent decision being made when contacted for comment by The Post.
