Matt Gaetz Faces ‘Humiliating’ Confirmation Hearing: Ex-White House Lawyer

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz, could face a “humiliating” confirmation hearing, according to former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter.
Trump announced that he had selected the Florida Republican to serve as his attorney general on Wednesday, prompting Gaetz to quickly resign his House seat.
On his Truth Social platform, he said that Gaetz, a fierce Trump loyalist, would “root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”
But Trump’s choice favoring a firebrand with limited legal experience who has faced legal issues of his own over more experienced candidates has shocked Republicans and legal experts, and he likely faces a tough path to Senate confirmation.
Gaetz was previously investigated by the DOJ for sex trafficking, though that probe ended in 2023 without charges being brought against him.
His resignation on Wednesday ends the House Ethics Committee’s probe into sex trafficking, sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and other allegations against Gaetz. Gaetz has denied all of the allegations.
The committee had reportedly been set to vote on whether to release a report outlining the investigation’s findings this week, but it’s now unclear whether that could still happen. Gaetz and the committee have been contacted for comment via email.
It’s “critical” that the report and all other relevant information about the nominee be provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Painter, a University of Minnesota Law School professor and former associate White House counsel during the George W. Bush administration, told Newsweek on Thursday.
“If all the relevant information is not provided, the Senate committee might very well refuse to have a hearing or delay a vote on the nomination,” he said.
The ethics committee’s report “is essential to the confirmation process,” he said, as is any information in the DOJ’s possession about Gaetz.
“It’s absolutely critical that that report in its entirety be provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee where the Republicans and the Democrats can read the report and ask Mr. Gaetz questions about the contents of the report in the confirmation hearing,” Painter said. “To confirm an attorney general without all the background information would be grossly negligent.”
Painter said some of the contents of the report may remain private after being handed over to the Senate committee, but Gaetz would likely face questioning about it during a confirmation hearing.
“This could be quite humiliating for the president-elect, for the Republicans if there are problems,” he said.
“Now, I don’t know what’s in that report. It could exonerate him, but I think keeping that report secret would be a very, very bad decision of the Republican leadership at the House.”
Trump “will need the support of the Senate to confirm these nominees,” Painter added. “We have had Republican-controlled Senates reject Republican presidents’ nominees in the past and it could happen this time if the administration is not forthcoming with all relevant information about each nominee.”
Senate Republicans “are not going to risk losing elections in two years by covering for a nominee when there’s information being kept from the public,” he added.
“So I think it’s very, very important to have transparency here and full disclosure, either public release of the report by the House of Representatives, which would probably be the best way to handle this, or alternatively, turning the report over to the Senate Judiciary Committee so the concerns can be addressed at the public hearing for confirmation.”