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Matt Gaetz, Attorney General of the United States. It’s almost an oxymoron.

It’s a crazy choice. It’s a dangerous choice. It is a choice that warns against dark intentions.

Let’s be specific. We can evaluate any candidate for Attorney General based on two fundamental criteria: qualifications and independence.

Gaetz is aggressively unskilled. The man has never been a prosecutor. He has no idea what it means to show up on the field and represent the United States. He has no idea what it means to investigate, indict and convict another human being. He has never been able to deprive another human being of their freedom, and he has no idea how that feels. He has no sense of judgment or prosecutorial discretion. It’s not his fault; he just never got the job done.

Gaetz is also not independent by any definition of the term. He is “a staunch conservative” and “a tireless defender of President Trump.” He has earned nicknames such as “the most Trump member of Congress in Trump’s Washington” and “the most Trump member of Congress”, both of which he considers badges of honor. Without a doubt, he is proud of all this: each of the preceding quotes in this paragraph is taken verbatim from Gaetz’s own Congress website.

The stakes here are incredibly high. The Attorney General sits at the top United States Department of Justice. That means he is responsible for more than 115,000 employees, including federal prosecutors, civil attorneys and law enforcement officials. He manages a budget of 37 billion dollars annual budget. The AG supervises the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices; separate criminal investigation divisions handling cases relating to civil rights, national security, and public integrity; the solicitor general, who handles all Supreme Court litigation for the federal government; the FBI, DEA and ATF; the Bureau of Prisons; and the US Marshals. It’s a big job that carries unimaginable power.

Regular readers of this column know that I do not subscribe to apocalyptic scenarios, including those related to Trump’s second term. But Gaetz’s impending appointment as the nation’s top law enforcement official is about as dark and clear as the warning signs. Gaetz prides himself on his political attack tactics, his unconditional defense of Trump, and his settling of scores (or perceived scores) against his political opponents. And there will be few precious safeguards to control its power. Republican majorities will run the Senate and (probably) the House, so don’t expect significant control of Congress. There’s also little the judiciary can do to dampen an investigation, although the courts play a bigger role if (and hopefully not when) this all turns into politically motivated indictments.

In 2021, I wrote a book called Ax man: How Bill Barr broke the prosecutor’s code and corrupted the Justice Department. That’s pretty much exactly correct in the title. Barr was a terrible attorney general. But for now, I’d take Barr as AG in half a second. His tenure has been defined by dishonesty and political manipulation to protect Trump and his political allies. But Barr at least understood the Justice Department; he had served as AG in the early 1990s and held other leadership positions at the DOJ. And he had a line he wouldn’t cross. Although Barr has unabashedly used his power to defend Trump, he has generally not used the Department as an offensive weapon to go after political adversaries — despite Trump’s repeated calls for him to do so. Gaetz promises to cross this line.

There is a tradition at the Justice Department that new prosecutors receive a copy of a legendary book speech delivered by Attorney General Robert Jackson in 1940. Jackson spoke of the extraordinary power prosecutors hold over life, liberty and property. “Although the prosecutor, at his best, is one of the most beneficial forces in our society, when he acts out of malice or other vile motives, he is one of the worst,” he said. -he declared to the assembled prosecutors. This seems true today, more than 80 years later. Jackson’s speech is generally cited as an inspirational text. This now threatens to become a prescient warning.