WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trumphis selection Rep. Matt Gaetz as his future Attorney General sent many Justice Department officials into a state of shock after the already tumultuous eight days since the election.

Reaction from Republicans on Capitol Hill also ranged from shock to support.

Several of the department’s roughly 110,000-strong workforce, who spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity, described an atmosphere of dread at the prospect of Gaetz taking over the nation’s law enforcement agency.

Some House Republicans, meeting behind closed doors, said there was a gasp in the chamber when they heard Trump had chosen Gaetz.

The Florida congressman, who has been an outspoken critic of the DOJ, was recently the subject of a criminal sex-trafficking investigation by the federal department he is now appointed to lead.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday night that Gaetz had resigned from Congress to “start the clock” on the process for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to call a special election to fill the vacancy. Gaetz’s resignation will end the investigation by the Ethics Committee, which does not investigate members after they leave Congress.

The role of US Attorney General is selected by the President, but confirmed pending appointment by the Senate.

“This cannot be real,” a Justice Department official told ABC News on Wednesday.

“Mass resignations if he is sworn in,” another official added.

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Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, was among those who expressed shock, appearing to refer to Trump’s demand that his nominees finish their recess appointments — without Senate confirmation.

“This shows why the counseling and consent process is so important, and I’m sure there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing,” Collins told reporters. “Obviously, the president has the right to appoint whoever he wants, but I’m sure there will be a lot of questions.”

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial during his first term, said “I don’t think this is a serious nomination for attorney general.”

“We need to have a serious attorney general, and I look forward to the opportunity to consider someone who is serious,” she said. “That wasn’t on my bingo card.”

Others at the Justice Department expressed doubts that Gaetz would ultimately win Senate confirmation, based on the initial wave of backlash on Capitol Hill.

However, an official who spoke to ABC News said he fears Gaetz’s nomination could be part of a larger effort to eventually secure the confirmation of someone else who previously would have been seen as less acceptable.

A major debate going on in the minds of many career officials right now is whether to stay at the Justice Department for the second Trump administration.

Gaetz, a years-long Justice Department investigation that began in 2019. He has long denied any wrongdoing, and the Justice Department informed Gaetz in 2023 that it declined to charge him after its investigation.

But the Florida congressman still faces an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee into the same allegations.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, asked if the ethics investigation concerned him, said: “Most certainly, it would be concerning because it would be part of his record,” Rounds said. Rounds told reporters he had “no reaction yet” to whether Gaetz would be confirmed. Asked if he would vote to confirm, he said, “All I can really tell you at this point is that normally we give the president the benefit of the doubt, but we still do our due diligence and advice and consent is still important.”

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who had announced Trump as his choice for secretary of state earlier in the day, had complementary things to say about his fellow Florida man.

“I’ve known him for a long time, and again, I think the president is entitled to his team and he’s made his appointments,” he said. “And so, I really like Matt. I know him very well, and I am confident that if the Senate confirms him, he will do a good job. And again, presidents have the right to have the people they want in these key positions to carry out the mandate given to them by the voters of the United States.”

On the House side, Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., expressed support for Trump’s election.

Trump has talked about using the agency as a tool for revenge against his enemies. Some federal prosecutors fear that Trump’s direction could dismantle important institutional norms that have governed the DOJ’s work since the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s.

Fears about Trump’s use of the DOJ come amid warnings recently issued by a top Trump transition adviser, attorney Mark Paoletta.

Paoletta took to X’s account to warn that any career official who tries to “resist” the demands of Trump’s appointees will be swiftly punished and even fired.

“I hope the DOJ lawyers will take responsibility for implementing President Trump’s agenda,” wrote Paoletta on Wednesday, adding, “This is their constitutional duty.”

Current Attorney General Merrick Garland has yet to comment publicly on Trump’s selection of Gaetz.