Senator Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, said on Sunday that he didn’t know former GOP Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, was an attorney until he was nominated for the post.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he never “did the dig” into Gaetz’s educational and professional background.
“To be quite frank, I didn’t even know he was an attorney until after he was appointed attorney general and I had to do my research on him,” Mullin told host Kristen Welker. “I know that sounds crazy because I served with him, I just never did the dig to find out his actual degree…what it was in.”
Trump announced the controversial pick on Wednesday, describing Gaetz as “a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”
Gaetz, who was the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation that concluded after the Biden administration declined to bring charges in 2023, received his Juris Doctor from William & Mary Law School in 2007. He was admitted to the Florida Bar the following year and worked in private practice before launching his campaign for state representative in 2010.
In 2021, the bar briefly suspended him from practicing law because he was “delinquent” on his fees. He was reinstated shortly after paying the dues.
Gaetz is in good standing and eligible to practice law, according to the Florida Bar.
Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and was part of a scheme that led to the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. He has denied any wrongdoing.
His resignation from the House concludes the probe into his alleged misconduct, but the report could still be published if a majority of the House Ethics Committee agrees.
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Pressure has been mounting on the committee to release the report regardless of Gaetz’s resignation, with proponents arguing that it could contain information vital in determining whether he should be confirmed as attorney general. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said that “the speaker is not involved with what happens in ethics” when asked Thursday about the potential release of the report.
By Friday, Johnson had changed his position and indicated that he was intervening in an attempt to block the potential release of the report, saying that releasing the document “would open a Pandora’s box” and that not releasing it would “make sense to everybody” if they “think about it.”
Johnson went on to insist that Gaetz’s nomination for a Cabinet position by Trump was not “relevant” to whether the report should be released.
Like other appointees, Gaetz will need U.S. Senate confirmation before taking the post. This year’s election flipped control of the Senate to Republicans, who now hold both chambers of Congress and the White House.
But even with a GOP majority in the upper chamber of Congress in the new term, the president-elect could face obstacles in getting his choices confirmed. Some Republican lawmakers, like Senator Susan Collins of Maine, have already expressed dismay over Trump picking Gaetz.
To get around this predicament, Trump could use recess appointments and bypass the Senate to get his Cabinet picks confirmed, according to Republican senator and incoming Majority Leader John Thune.
But barring recess appointments, Mullin, who has previously been critical of his former House colleague amid these allegations, told Welker that the Gaetz report should be released to the Senate. Mullin said releasing the report to the public will be “part of the negotiations.”
“The Senate should have access to that [Gaetz report]. Now whether that’s available to the public or not, that’s part of the negotiation, part of decision making,” Mullin said. “Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the Senate has to advise and consent to these individuals. In that process, we’re going to give Matt Gaetz the same chances we’ll give all of President Trump’s nominees.”
He continued: “I have no doubt President Trump believes Matt Gaetz is the right person to the do the right job. But at the same time, the background of Matt Gaetz does matter, and the decisions the Senate makes has to be within the boundaries of the Constitution and the authority we have. And we will do our due diligence there.”
Newsweek has reached out to Mullin and Trump communications officials Sunday morning for comment.
Gaetz and Mullin have had their fair share of public spats.
In 2023, Mullin accused Gaetz of showing sexually explicit photos and videos of underage girls to colleagues on the House Floor.
“We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor…of the girls that he had slept with. He’d brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night,” Mullin told CNN amid Gaetz’s influence in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Gaetz has denied those allegations.
Mullin also told Bloomberg TV in 2023 that Gaetz is not “a principled individual” and that Trump’s attorney general pick is “about watching out for himself, and that’s it.”
In August, Gaetz called Mullin “a disgrace to the Republican Party” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, over allegations that the senator had violated insider trading rules.
Last week, Mullin said he and Gaetz had “had our differences” in the past, but added, “I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one.”
However, he also said: “But at the same time, [Gaetz] has to come to…the Senate and sell himself. There’s a lot of questions that are going to be out there. He’s got to answer those questions.”
