WASHINGTON – The election of Donald Trump Matt Gaetz To be attorney general, many Justice Department employees are reeling, worried not only about their own jobs but also about the future of the agency against which the Trump loyalist railed.

The Florida Republican’s choice of president-elect sent shockwaves through the entire Cabinet department, given Gaetz’s lack of law enforcement experience and the fact that he was once the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation. The names of well-regarded veteran attorneys have been floated as possible candidates for the job, but Gaetz’s selection was broadly interpreted as an indication of the premium Trump places on personal loyalty and Trump’s desire to have a disruptor lead a department that for years investigated and eventually indicted him.

Career attorneys for the department interviewed by The Associated Press, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share their feelings publicly, described a widespread sense of bewilderment — even outrage — at the nomination. They spoke of being inundated with calls and texts from colleagues as soon as the news broke.

Some inside the department were not immediately sure that Gaetz, who graduated from law school in 2007 but has spent his career as a lawmaker, including in Congress, was even a lawyer. And some are already looking for new jobs as concerns grow about Gaetz’s rhetoric about going after the “deep state.”

Gaetz has claimed the department is “corrupt and highly politicized” and has strongly criticized Trump’s federal prosecutions and the January 6 riots. He also suggested disbanding two agencies he will oversee as attorney general, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He would come to the job without the legal experience of his predecessors, including current Attorney General Merrick Garland, who, as a senior Justice Department official, oversaw the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case before to become a federal appeals court judge.

Trump described Gaetz as the right person to “remove systemic corruption” from the agency, end the “weaponized” government and “restore Americans’ severely shattered faith and trust in the Department of Justice.” Trump has yet to announce such a thing leadership change at the FBI, though one may be coming given his long-standing criticism of the director, Christopher Wray.

“I think he was elected to shake the whole thing up and throw a grenade into the DOJ,” said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama. “He’s a flamethrower. and that’s what Trump wants.”

Fishwick said Justice Department attorneys he has been in touch with are “concerned about what this will mean for them individually.”

But a Justice Department lawyer was less bothered by the change, saying a change in leadership could be a welcome reset given the “mistrust on both the left and the right,” which the lawyer said that it is justified after a tumultuous series of politically charged and divisive investigations. public opinion and put federal law enforcement on the defensive.

The FBI and the Department of Justice have, in recent years, undertaken investigations into urgent matters, including classified information about Hillary Clinton’s private email server when the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee was Obama’s secretary of state and the potential connections between Russia and Trump’s political campaign in the same year. Both became subjects of inspector general reviews. More recently, there was a special counsel investigation that produced federal charges against Trump that are now on the way to being dropped.

It is not clear if Gaetz has enough Republican support in the Senate to be confirmed. Some Republicans praised his nomination, but more they expressed their concern or have refused to say publicly yet whether they will support him. Trump has addressed the possibility of bypassing the traditional confirmation process pushing his nominees while the Senate is in recess.

Gaetz faces continued scrutiny of a federal the sex trafficking investigation which ended without criminal charges. Before his resignation from Parliament on Wednesday, he had been under the House Ethics Committee investigationwhich examined whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts and attempted to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.

The President of the Chamber Mike Johnson he said on Friday that he would “firm request” that the House committee not release the results of its investigation, rebuffing senators who are demanding access now that Gaetz is Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Gaetz has denied all allegations. On Friday, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “lies have been weaponized” in an effort to try to destroy him.

Justice Department officials were already preparing for a major shift in the agency’s agenda on civil rights and other issues before Trump tapped Gaetz to become the nation’s top federal law enforcement officer.

Trump is known to be very interested in the FBI and the Department of Justice, expecting loyalty from leaders and demanding specific actions. He has criticized what he sees as a politically motivated justice system over cases brought against him by a Justice Department special counsel. As a candidate, he repeatedly suggested this he would seek revenge his perceived enemies for his pursuit.

Some lawyers in the career department leave for the private sector every time there is a new administration, but staffers say there could be a dramatic staff departure in the coming months.

“The department runs on career employees, people who are apolitical in their work and politics aside, if all these people are so dismayed by the attorney general’s pick that they leave, who is going to carry out the functions of the department?” said a Justice Department lawyer who plans to leave the government.

Chris Mattei, a former Connecticut federal prosecutor who prosecuted the former governor. John Rowland, and later ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general as a Democrat, said he heard a “significant level of concern” about Gaetz about the criminal investigation Gaetz faced, the House ethics review , a potentially insufficient examination of his background and perspective. that the department could be run by “someone who is very compromised” and may also have a “personal vendetta” against him.

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.