WASHINGTON (AP) — As President-elect Donald Trump grapples with choosing former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Republican senators are divided over how much information they will need to advance his confirmation — and how much to push back on Trump He is demanding that his cabinet be approved quickly once he takes office in January.
Gaetz, who has called senators and is expected to meet with some of them as early as this week, is an unconventional choice for the nation’s top law enforcement official. His nomination leads to a surge in approval in the Senate, where many Republicans are deeply unhappy with his choice.
The Florida Republican spent his congressional career agitating against the Justice Department and faced a House ethics investigation into whether he had committed sexual misconduct and illegal drug apply, accepted improper gifts and sought to open government investigations into his conduct to obstruct – allegations that Gaetz denies. He is also deeply unpopular within his own party after leading the push to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year.
Publicly, Republican senators say they will give Gaetz the same due process as any other nominee. Most people are afraid to criticize him directly. But they disagree on whether to demand access to the ethics report that the House Ethics Committee could release after Gaetz resigned from the House last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has positioned himself as Trump’s top ally in Congress, said last week he would “strongly” ask that the Ethics Commission not release the results of its investigation.
Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will become Senate majority leader in January, deferred to Johnson and said Monday that the ethics report was “a matter for the House of Representatives.” However, several participants in his conference argued that the Senate should see the report whether it is publicly released or not.
“There’s nothing that smells right about saying, ‘Hey, there’s a report, but none of us want to see it,'” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the House, said the ethics report was critical to the Senate’s “advice and consent” role set forth in the Constitution. “I think the House report plays a critical role in that,” he said.
Others said the information would come to airy one way or another even if it wasn’t made public. “I will honor Speaker Johnson’s position,” said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. “I think it’s a reasonable position.”
The simmering conflict between the Senate, House of Representatives and Trump could be just the first of many to come. Trump has made it clear that he expects the unified Republican Congress to give him wide latitude in his nominees next year and has already made several calls to senators.
Traditionally, Cabinet nominees have submitted a deluge of documents to Senate committees before their confirmation hearings, participated in FBI background checks and filled out lengthy questionnaires that probe every aspect of their lives and careers. But Trump’s transition has already signaled that he may not seek the background checks and has so far refused to sign agreements with the White House and Justice Department to allow that process to begin.
The documentation, including criminal background checks and financial background checks, could be crucial for senators from both parties who have questions about Gaetz and some of Trump’s other more controversial nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Pete Hegseth for the post of Secretary of Defense Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Without the established process, whether to proceed without an FBI background check would be up to individual committee chairs, who will be under enormous pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly move his nominees. On Tuesday, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the up-to-date No. 2 Republican under Thune, said the Senate would begin hearings as soon as Republicans win the majority on Jan. 3 and begin taking confirmation votes as soon as Trump will be inaugurated on January 20th.
Republican senators say they will demand that documentation, but it’s unclear how that might work if Trump’s transition party doesn’t agree to it.
“I think if they want a quick review of this nomination, we need to have as much transparency as possible,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who will be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee next year. “Because you’ve heard my colleagues, particularly on the Republican side, say that they have some questions.”
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the up-to-date chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would like to see a established process with a full FBI background check for Hegseth and the other committee nominees. “We should do it by the numbers,” Wicker said.
But Democrats fear the process could be muddled or constrained as Trump puts all his pressure on Senate Republicans.
“If there’s a cursory background check, as we call it, on 20 people, that’s not appropriate,” said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who will be the panel’s top Democrat next year .
In the meantime. Gaetz has already paid a visit to at least one group of potential allies, the far-right House Freedom Caucus, where he laid out for the group “some of the things that need to be done at the Justice Department to end weaponization.” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
Among the ideas Gaetz discussed was “eliminating a lot of senior staff,” Harris said.
As for the allegations of sexual misconduct against Gaetz, Harris dismissed them, saying, “Last time I checked, in America you are innocent until proven guilty.” He said he didn’t believe the ethics files of the House of Representatives about Gaetz should be published.
“We believe the president deserves to have his Cabinet nominees approved, and Mr. Gaetz knows what needs to be done to end the arming of the department,” Harris said.
Speaker Johnson also made his position clear on Tuesday, telling reporters that the Senate should do its job and “certainly, take a look, take a deep dive” and then send it on for confirmation so that “the president has the team to “What to do.” That’s what the American people elected him to do.”
“I think President Trump is looking for people who will shake up the status quo,” Johnson said. “And we were tasked with doing that in this election cycle.”
