As attorney general, Gaetz would go from being under DOJ scrutiny to leading the nation’s top law enforcement agency
CNN
One career official described hearing audible cries of “oh my God” echoing down the hallway inside DOJ’s headquarters.
When President-elect Donald Trump tapped Matt Gaetz for attorney general, he elevated a MAGA firebrand with a penchant for stoking controversy and a history of getting out of trouble to lead a Justice Department that has investigated both men. Gaetz, a career politician with limited experience practicing law, resigned from his seat in Congress just hours after Trump announced earlier this week his intention to nominate him as the top federal law enforcement officer in the United States. The Florida Republican has a tense history with the Justice Department, clashing with officials during contentious oversight hearings where he accused the department of being “weaponized” against Trump and fellow conservatives and decrying the yearslong federal sex-crimes investigation of him that began during the Trump administration. (Prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him.) Gaetz would be able to take on the Justice Department from the inside, molding the institution and its law enforcement components, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Drug Enforcement Administration, to fit his vision — and Trump’s. Democrats on Capitol Hill and some legal scholars have flatly said Gaetz is unqualified for the job, and even people close to Gaetz told CNN they are concerned he may not be a good fit at the department and may have trouble winning confirmation by the Senate if there’s a vote on his nomination. But many Republicans and Gaetz allies have touted his aggressive style as an essential attribute for an attorney general. Sources close to Trump said he sees Gaetz as an effective messenger of his agenda and believes his appointees to other top positions at the Justice Department can handle day-to-day duties.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.