Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that he considers former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), President-elect Trump’s choice for attorney general, “disqualified” for the top law enforcement job in the country.
“I think he’s not only unqualified. He is really disqualified,” Schiff said in CNN’s “State of the Union” interview with Jake Tapper.
“Are we really going to have an attorney general who has credible allegations he was involved in child sex trafficking, potential illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation, who has no experience serving in the Justice Department, only being investigated by it?” Schiff continued.
Schiff suggested that Trump is trying to test how far the Congress will go as the former president prepares for a second term with Republican control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“But Jake, I think the whole point with these nominees, several of them, is their unqualification, is there affirmative disqualification,” Schiff said. “That’s Trump’s point because what he wants to do with these nominees is establish that the Congress of the United States will not stand up to him with anything.”
“If they will confirm Matt Gaetz, they will do anything he wants,” Schiff said.
The Ethics panel has for years been investigating Gaetz, exploring whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations. He has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the Department of Justice, which previously investigated whether he had sex with a 17-year-old, declined to charge him with a crime.
However, that Ethics Committee investigation came to an abrupt end Wednesday when Gaetz resigned from the House shortly after Trump nominated him to serve as attorney general. The Ethics panel does not have jurisdiction over former members of Congress.
It is unknown what path the panel will follow with its Gaetz report. Some Republican senators, however, have pushed for the Senate Judiciary panel to be granted access to the report and the probe’s findings as they go through the vetting process.
