Donald Trump elected a congressman from Florida Matt Gaetz to serve as Attorney General of the United States.

The president-elect wrote in his announcement that the Florida congressman “has distinguished himself in Congress by his focus on achieving much-needed reform at the Department of Justice” and that he will “remove systemic corruption from the DOJ and return the Department. to its true mission of fighting crime and upholding our democracy and Constitution.”

Gaetz, 42, is a staunch Trump loyalist who has been investigated by Congress ethical violations. “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!” Gaetz wrote about X.

Wednesday, the president of the Chamber Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Gaetz already did resigned from Congress and “issued his letter of resignation, effective immediately.”

Gaetz is no stranger to the department he was tasked with leading. The Justice Department previously investigated the congressman in connection with sex-trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old. While the investigation captured someone close to Gaetz, federal law enforcement took the plunge not to pursue criminal charges against the congressman in 2023.

Gaetz has long maintained that he did nothing to deserve criminal scrutiny. According to testimony received by the commission on January 6, however, Gaetz requested a pardon from Trump before the end of the first Trump administration.

The House Ethics Committee has been ever since investigating Gaetz on his own for a long list of alleged improprieties. These include allegations that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, granted special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations into his behavior”.

That ethics investigation was at the heart of the dispute between then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Gaetz, which led Gaetz to orchestrate McCarthy’s ouster last October. McCarthy was open that Gaetz led his overthrow because McCarthy would not stop the ethics investigation.

Minutes after Gaetz’s selection was announced, a Republican senator close to Trump says Rolling Stone“Our president is going out of his way to hit me.”

Other House Republicans greeted Trump’s announcement with disbelief and calls to release the results of the ethics committee’s investigation. Rep. Mike Simpson was asked by a reporter whether Gaetz — who has served in Congress since 2017 — has the character to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. He replied, “Are you kidding me? Not.”

Gaetz could face an uphill battle in the Senate, where even conservative senators like Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma view him with contempt. A former House member, Mullin alleged that Gaetz shared locker room stories about his sexual conquests on the House floor (Gaetz denied this). Other Republican senators reportedly expressed shock at the announcement, but it’s certainly possible that it will eventually come out. Apparently Mullin has, anyway. “I have complete confidence in President Trump’s decision-making on this,” Mullin said Wednesday.

Florida Democratic Chairwoman Nikki Fried rejected the nomination. “Matt Gaetz is an agent of chaos who only cares about his own personal power,” Fried said. “He spent his eight years in Congress trying to burn down our institutions — bringing us to the brink of multiple government shutdowns and constitutional crises along the way.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, criticizes Gaetz as “totally and completely unfit” and “horribly unqualified to be attorney general.” But he suggests that may be Trump’s goal in appointing him. “I have no doubt that Gaetz will carry out Trump’s plans to weaponize the federal government to punish his political enemies.”

Maxwell Frost, a Democratic member of the Florida House caucus was brief in his assessment of Gaetz’s nomination: “God help us.”