Attorney General-designate Matt Gaetz returned to his former stomping ground Wednesday to schmooze Republican senators alongside Vice President-elect JD Vance, as a House panel prepared to debate whether to release a potentially explosive report about the Republican ex-Florida congressman’s alleged drug abuse and sexual misconduct.
Gaetz, 42, smiled at photographers as he entered the Capitol alongside Vance, 40, ahead of planned meetings with GOP senators, some of whom have expressed skepticism about the Sunshine Stater being confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Sources told The Post that initial conversations with Gaetz about his nomination have been “positive,” with President-elect Donald Trump personally lobbying senators to confirm one of his most controversial cabinet picks.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of the soon-to-be 47th president’s closest confidants during the transition, has also come out in support of Gaetz, calling him a “Hammer of Justice” and the “Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system.”
“I had a very good meeting with President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, and Vice President-elect JD Vance,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) posted Wednesday on X.
“I am committed to allowing the process to go forward in a manner consistent with past practices and fundamental fairness. This process will not be a rubber stamp nor will it be driven by a lynch mob,” he added.
“I fear the process surrounding the Gaetz nomination is turning into an angry mob, and unverified allegations are being treated as if they are true. I have seen this movie before.
“I would urge all of my Senate colleagues, particularly Republicans, not to join the lynch mob and give the process a chance to move forward. After years of being investigated by the Department of Justice, no charges were brought against Matt Gaetz. This is something we should all remember,” Graham continued.
“I would also urge my colleagues to go back to a time-tested process, receive relevant information, and give the nominee a chance to make their case as to why they should be confirmed. This standard — which I have long adhered to — has served the Senate and country well.”
Nevertheless, some are still expressing reservations — as well as interest in reviewing the findings of a two-year Ethics Committee probe into Gaetz’s alleged payments for sexual favors.
Centrist Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), as well as soon-to-be Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), have called for full transparency.
“I’m saying to the people that want any cabinet person to get through, not just Gaetz, it’s going to be a lot faster if you give us the information that we want,” Grassley said Tuesday. “If they want a speedy consideration of this nomination, we’ve got to have as much transparency as we can have.”
“I truly don’t know what President Trump’s thoughts on this [are],” Collins also told reporters. “The constitutional role of the Senate should be respected. We need decent court nominees. We need to have a background check, a Senate investigation, and a public hearing just as we have always done with cabinet nominees.”
Grassley has already spoken with Gaetz, a spokeswoman for the Iowan told The Post on Wednesday, saying the two “had a substantive discussion.”
“Grassley encourages Gaetz to speak with other Judiciary Committee members on both sides of the dais,” the spokeswoman added.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another Judiciary Committee member, told the Wall Street Journal that he “absolutely” wanted a full background check of all nominees and suggested the panel would subpoena witnesses in the Ethics Committee investigation.
“In order to do our job, we need to get access to all the information, but also to protect the president against any surprises that might damage his administration,” he told the outlet.
The GOP Senate majority will stand at 53-47, meaning the conference can only afford to lose a maximum of three votes in order to confirm Gaetz.
Meanwhile, ABC News reported late Tuesday that Gaetz paid more than $10,000 via Venmo to two women who testified to House lawmakers that the congressman sent them the money in exchange for sex.
One of the women also alleged that she saw the Florida pol having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party in July 2017, during his first term in Congress, according to Joel Leppard, an Orlando-based attorney for both women.
Gaetz has strenuously denied all allegations, and the Justice Department chose not to charge him following a multi-year probe into allegations of sex-trafficking a minor.
The Ethics Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, has advocated for the Gaetz report being shown to senators as well as the public, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has argued that revealing details of an investigation into an ex-lawmaker would “open a Pandora’s box.”
“There’s a very important reason for the tradition and the rule that we always have — almost always followed — and that is that we don’t issue investigations and ethics reports on people who are not members of Congress,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
In December 1987, House lawmakers did release an unfinished report into Rep. Bill Boner (D-Tenn.), who resigned two months earlier to run for Nashville mayor, over his relationship with a government contractor.
A longtime legislator, Gaetz worked for two years at a law firm in the Florida Panhandle advocating for government transparency before stints in the state legislature and US Congress.
He resigned from the 118th Congress on Nov. 13, hours after Trump nominated him to be the next attorney general.