In announcing his selection of Gaetz as attorney general and John Ratcliffe a day earlier as CIA director, Trump underscored the premium he places on loyalty, citing both men's support for him during the Russia investigation as central to their qualifications.
“Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution. We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ,” Trump wrote in a social media post about Gaetz, a Florida Republican.
That Trump would openly value Gaetz's role in “defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic Government Corruption and Weaponization” is not altogether surprising. In his first term, Trump fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him at a private White House dinner and an attorney general who recused himself from the Justice Department's investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.
“I think this selection indicates that President-elect Trump was looking for an attorney general whose views were closely aligned with him with respect to the appropriate role of the Department of Justice,” said former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz.
Ratcliffe, who served as Trump's director of national intelligence in the final months of his first term, rose to prominence on Capitol Hill as a staunch defender of Trump. He was a member of Trump's advisory team during his first impeachment in 2019 and pointedly grilled multiple witnesses about the Russia investigation — including an FBI agent who led the inquiry and also traded anti-Trump text messages with a colleague.
That work was credited by Trump in his selection announcement as he praised Ratcliffe for “exposing fake Russian collusion” and having “been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public.”
Gaetz has used the seat in Congress he first won in 2016 to rail against the Justice Department, repeatedly decrying what he — and Trump — contends is a criminal justice system biased against conservatives. He has blasted law enforcement officials he has perceived as being either overtly anti-Trump or ineffective in protecting Trump's interests.
When Robert Mueller visited Capitol Hill to discuss the findings of the Russia investigation, Gaetz condemned the prosecutor for leading a team that the congressman said was “so biased.” The Trump Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor, John Durham, to examine errors in the Russia investigation, but Gaetz scolded Durham too for failing to uncover enough damaging information about the FBI's inquiry into Trump.
“For the people like the (committee) chairman who put trust in you, I think you let them down. I think you let the country down. You are one of the barriers to the true accountability that we need,” Gaetz told Durham.
He's directed outright fury at FBI Director Christopher Wray, snapping at him last year that FBI applicants in Florida “deserve better than you” and at the current attorney general, Merrick Garland, who appointed special counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Both investigations ended in indictments expected to wind down before Trump takes office. Smith, too, is also likely to be gone by the time Gaetz arrives, and a new FBI director is also expected to be appointed given Trump's lingering discontent with Wray.
