“Matt will root out systemic corruption within the 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 the DOJ,” Trump wrote in a social media post about Gaetz, a Florida Republican.

Trump’s rhetoric reflects an about-face by the president Joe Bidenwhich has repeatedly taken a hands-off approach from the Department of Justice even while facing a special counsel investigation in his handling of classified information and as his son, Hunter, was charged with taxes and firearms.

Democrats immediately sounded the alarm, Sen. Dick Durbinthe Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Gaetz “would be a disaster” in part because of Trump’s threat to use the Justice Department “to get revenge on his political enemies.” The president of Common Cause, a good-government group, called the selection “shocking” and “a serious threat to the fair and equal application of law in our nation.” Even several Senate Republicans have expressed concern about Gaetz’s choice.

That Trump openly valorizes Gaetz’s role in “defeating Russia, Russia, the Russia hoax, and exposing alarming, systemic government corruption and militarization” is not entirely surprising. During his first term, Trump fired an FBI director who refused to pledge allegiance to him at a private dinner at the White House and an attorney general who recused himself of 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 regarding the appropriate role of the Justice Department,” the former federal prosecutor said. Robert Mintz.

Ratcliffe, who served as Trump’s director of national intelligence at final months of his first termmade a name for himself on Capitol Hill as a staunch supporter of Trump. He was a member of Trump’s advisory team during his first impeachment in 2019 and pointedly questioned several witnesses about the Russia investigation – including an FBI agent who led the investigation and also exchanged anti-Trump text messages with a colleague.

This work was credited by Trump in his selection announcement, as he praised Ratcliffe for “exposing false Russian collusion” and for “being a warrior for truth and honesty to the American public.”

Gaetz would be the first attorney general in 20 years without prior Justice Department experience, and in recent years he has become embroiled in a federal case himself. sex trafficking investigation which ended without criminal charges.

A few hours before the announcement, Gaetz said in a post on social media that there must be “total judicial pressure against this ARMED government that has turned against our people.” He added: “And if that means REMOVING every single one of the three agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to go!” » If confirmed as attorney general, he would oversee both the FBI and the ATF.

Advancing the theme of revenge, supporter of billionaire Trump Elon Musk weighed in on Gaetz’s nomination with a message that read: “The hammer of justice is coming. »

Gaetz has used the congressional seat he first won in 2016 to speak out against the Justice Department, repeatedly denouncing what he — and Trump — claims is a criminal justice system biased against conservatives. He castigated law enforcement officials he perceived as either openly anti-Trump or ineffective in protecting Trump’s interests.

When Robert Mueller went to the Capitol to discuss findings of the Russia investigationGaetz condemned the prosecutor for leading a team that the congressman called “so biased.” Trump’s Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor, John Durham, to examine errors in the Russia investigation, but Gaetz also chastised Durham for failing to uncover enough damaging information about the FBI investigation on Trump.

“For people like the (committee) chairman who trust you, I think you have let them down. I think you have let the country down. You are one of the obstacles to the real accountability we need,” Gaetz said in Durham.

He directed his anger at the FBI director. Christopher Wraytelling him last year that FBI Applicants in Florida “deserves better than you” and with the current attorney general, Merrick GarlandWHO appointed special advisor 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 resulted in indictments that are expected to be completed before Trump takes office. Smith, too, will probably be gone by the time Gaetz arrives, and a new FBI director should also be nominated given Trump’s continued dissatisfaction with Wray, his own appointee.

“None of us can predict exactly what will happen there,” said Ryan Fayheeformer national security prosecutor at the Department of Justice.

He added: “I think it’s more a matter of the department continuing to be independent and resting largely on the broad shoulders of career prosecutors and officers who have held themselves to the standards the highest. »

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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.