Supporters of President Trump and counter-protesters converged in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on Sunday in a small but raucous confrontation that included a performance from a pro-Trump punk rock icon and remarks from a disgraced ex-congressman.

At a rally aimed at encouraging voters to leave the Democratic Party, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz portrayed the Republican Party as “patriotic and joyful” while denigrating the opposition as “angry and lonely.”

“They are the movement that allowed this great state to burn,” Gaetz said. “They are the movement that turned what was paradise over to the homeless and illegal aliens.”

Gaetz, currently hosting a political news show for One America News Network from San Diego, had stepped down from his congressional seat after Trump nominated him to be the nation’s attorney general. The nomination sparked controversy because Gaetz was previously under investigation by the Department of Justice for allegations of child sex trafficking. After a long-running probe, prosecutors did not file charges.

Gaetz ultimately withdrew himself from consideration for the attorney general post. In December, the House Ethics Committee reported that it had found evidence that he abused drugs and paid for sex, including with a minor, while serving in Congress.

Gaetz’s scandal-ridden history went unmentioned at the rally Sunday, where he beckoned those disaffected with the left to join Republicans.

“If you come to our side,” he told a few hundred attendees, “we will welcome you with a patriotic embrace.”

Though tense at times, the rally, dubbed the “American Restoration Tour,” was largely peaceful, with the exception of a small fight and an arrest. Private security guards tackled a man who appeared to be wearing a kilt and yelling. He appeared to be handcuffed by police officers as Trump supporters chanted “U.S.A.”

One person was arrested at the rally on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, said Beverly Hills police Sgt. Richard Billingsley, although it was unclear if it was the same individual seen detained by officers. No additional details about the incident were available Sunday evening.

The rally was held in Beverly Gardens Park, a lush green space that runs parallel to Santa Monica Boulevard and has been the site of frequent demonstrations in support of Trump. Although much of the affluent Westside skews liberal, Beverly Hills is home to neighborhoods that repeatedly voted for Trump.

Shiva Bagheri, the organizer of some pro-Trump gatherings there in 2020, told the crowd that she fled Iran because of the impact of “radical Islam” on the nation. Bagheri said she voted for President Obama, but the “bubble was popped” because he gave “boatloads of cash to Iran.”

A through-line of the roughly two-hour rally were speakers like Bagheri: former liberals who felt disenfranchised by the Democratic Party and became full-throated Trump supporters.

Actress Natalie Beisner, who voted for Hillary Clinton and Obama, said the pandemic shutdowns made her rethink her political views. Beisner said that due to the shutdowns, she lost two jobs and her grandmother died alone, while at the same time, protesters prompted by the death of George Floyd could gather en mass. When she raised such concerns, Beisner said she was called racist and selfish.

“These people refused to acknowledge that I might have an honest reason for disagreeing with them. There was no conversation,” she said. “So I walked away from the Democrat Party because for the first time in my life, I connected my suffering directly to Democrat policies.”

Before the rally, which was organized by the creator of the #WalkAway social media campaign encouraging voters to leave the Democratic Party, Trump supporters gathered in the heart of the LGBTQ+ community in West Hollywood to march into Beverly Hills.

As diners along Santa Monica Boulevard brunched on patios and took in a drag queen performance, several dozen pro-Trump marchers chanted, “Walk away from hate.”

A slightly larger number of counter-protesters had gathered nearby, yelling, “No KKK! No fascist USA! No Trump!”

A West Hollywood resident who went by the name Anniejump came with a loud speaker and pink bandannas. She called the group “bigots” who came to the community of West Hollywood “to attack queers.”

“Anybody who doesn’t like fascists wants them out of town,” Anniejump said.

But the LGBTQ+ community is not monolithic in its political views.

Hunter Gibson, a 29-year-old gay man, told The Times that he felt that in places like West Hollywood, “if you don’t think a certain way, you’re ostracized.” Conservative groups, he said, were more open to dialogue.

At the rally, several speakers focused on the transgender community. After the event, Brandon Straka, a gay man and the founder of the #WalkAway campaign behind Sunday’s event, expressed concern about transitioning by underage people.

Straka was pardoned by Trump in January after being convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“I think you can be pro-transgender and also recognize that there’s a culture that’s too permissive, that’s turning people into permanent victims, especially people who are not actually transgender,” he said in an interview.

Cherie Currie, the former lead singer of the Runaways, sang “Cherry Bomb” at the rally.

The 1976 song was a subversive celebration of female sexuality and rejection of the patriarchy by an all-female band. Currie has since become a supporter of the “Gays Against Groomers” movement.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he will nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department, turning to a longtime ally after his first choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations.

Bondi has been an outspoken defender of Trump. She was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial, when he was accused — but not convicted — of abusing his power as he tried to condition U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on that country investigating then-former Vice President Joe Biden. And she was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his New York hush money criminal trial that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” Trump said in a social media post. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Gaetz stepped aside amid continued fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer. Gaetz’s vehemently denied the allegations, but his nomination stunned many career lawyers inside the Justice Department. Gaetz, who passed the bar but barely worked as a lawyer, had very little relevant experience for the job. Bondi comes with years of legal work under her belt and that other trait Trump prizes above all: loyalty.

The hasty withdrawal by Gaetz and quick pivot to Bondi were the latest examples of Trump’s tumultuous decision-making as he rushes out nominations — some of questionable character and credentials — at a breakneck pace without the government vetting that is typical of presidential transitions. It’s an omen that despite running his most organized campaign for the White House this year, his return to the Oval Office might feature the same sort of drama that permeated his first term.

Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the transition team had backups in mind for his controversial nominees should they fail to get confirmed.

Still, even in Trump’s world, things moved fast. Trump had been seeking to capitalize on his decisive election win to force Senate Republicans to accept provocative selections like Gaetz. The decision could heighten scrutiny on other controversial Trump nominees, including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, who faces sexual assault allegations that he denies.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz said in a statement one day after meeting with senators in an effort to win their support.

“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1,” he added.

Trump, in a social media post, said: “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”

Bondi is a well-known figure in Trump’s circle, and has been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers. She’s been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against Trump. In one recent radio appearance, she called Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and other prosecutors who have charged Trump “horrible” people she said were trying to make names for themselves by “going after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted in a social media post that Bondi “will be confirmed quickly,” calling her selection a “grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick.”

If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Bondi would instantly become one of the most closely watched members of Trump’s Cabinet given the Republican’s threat to pursue retribution against perceived adversaries and concern among Democrats that he will look to bend the Justice Department to his will. A recent Supreme Court opinion not only conferred broad immunity on former presidents but also affirmed a president’s exclusive authority over the Justice Department’s investigative functions.

As president, he demanded investigations into political opponents like Hillary Clinton and sought to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to advance his own interests, including in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Bondi would inherit a Justice Department expected to pivot sharply on civil rights, corporate enforcement and the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — defendants whom Trump has pledged to pardon.

It’s unlikely that Bondi would be confirmed in time to overlap with Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump that are both expected to wind down before the incoming president takes office. Special counsels are expected to produce reports on their work that historically are made public, but it remains unclear when such a document might be released.

Bondi was accused by a Massachusetts attorney of bribery over a $25,000 campaign contribution she received from Trump in 2013. Bondi asked for the donation near the same time that her office was being asked about a New York investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University. In 2017, that complaint was found to have lacked enough evidence to move forward.

In 2013, while serving as Florida attorney general, she publicly apologized for asking that the execution of a man convicted of murder be delayed because it conflicted with a campaign fundraiser. She said she was wrong and sorry for requesting that then-Gov. Rick Scott push back the execution of Marshall Lee Gore by three weeks.

While Gaetz sought to lock down Senate support this week, concern over the sex trafficking allegations showed no signs of abating.

In recent days, an attorney for two women said his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman. One of the women testified she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old at a party in Florida in 2017, according to the attorney, Joel Leppard.

Gaetz’s political future is uncertain. In a social media post, pointed at the incoming vice president, Gaetz wrote: “I look forward to continuing the fight to save our country. Just maybe from a different post.”

_____

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report.

Re “Matt Gaetz not going to cut it as nation’ AG“:

Amen. I am dumbfounded.

Could Trump have found a worse nominee?

When JFK nominated Bobby as AG he said in perfect tongue-in-cheek style that he didn’t see anything wrong in giving Bobby some experience  before he went into private practice.

Is there something in Trump’s diet Coke we don’t know about about?

Maybe he’s got the original cocaine recipe.

I hope Trump comes to his senses and ranks Gaetz and nominates Matthew Whitaker.

I voted for Trump three times and hope he’s playing chess while I’m playing checkers.  Beats me what he’s up to.

Mary Emily Smiley, Lawndale

An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an interview that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adult clients for sex.

Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.

“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.

The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.

“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News regarding all the allegations involving Gaetz. “These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”

Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.

“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Rep. Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked Leppard.

“That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,'” Leppard said.

Leppard also told ABC News that his client testified to House Ethics Committee that, based on her knowledge, Gaetz stopped having sex with the minor after he learned she was underage.

“Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18,” Leppard said.

Leppard’s interview with ABC News comes days after he publicly called for the House Ethics Committee to be released.

“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” Leppard said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”

The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report on Gaetz and potentially vote on its release, despite the fact that the investigation ended when Gaetz resigned from the House, multiple sources told ABC News.

The development comes after Leppard on Friday first told ABC News that one of his clients had witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor — amid mounting pressure on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on its probe into the former Florida congressman.

The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the then-congressman and testified in both the DOJ and House Ethics investigations.

Gaetz’s one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage.

Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee’s report on Thursday.

“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” Clune said in a statement.

Sources said the woman, who is now in her 20s, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.

Gaetz faces an increasingly uphill nomination process in the Senate, with at least five Republican senators signaling skepticism that he could get enough support to be confirmed.

President-elect Trump has repeatedly urged GOP leadership to bypass the traditional confirmation process through recess appointments, whereby Trump could appoint his cabinet while Congress is out of session.

He and Marjorie Taylor Greene won $100,000 combined from city and convention center, notes columnist David Allen, who says we might rather the IE weren’t on their radar.

Originally Published: November 17, 2024 at 7:30 AM PST

WASHINGTON  —  Since he began taking over the Republican Party nearly a decade ago, President-elect Donald Trump has demanded increasing levels of loyalty from lawmakers who serve in Congress.

With few exceptions, they have gone along, refusing to convict him in two impeachment trials and, even after he was convicted of 34 felonies, helping him win a second term in the White House as he plowed through a Republican primary and general election after falsely denying his 2020 loss.

Now, members of the Senate will face another test: whether to cede their long-held independent authority under the Constitution to review an increasingly controversial group of Cabinet picks.

Many senators in both parties have already expressed concerns about some of Trump’s selections, but the president-elect has said he expects the body to test a controversial tactic that would let him bypass the confirmation process.

In the last several days, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth, a Fox television host and veteran who has never held a leadership post, as his secretary of Defense; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic House member accused of spreading Kremlin talking points, as his director of national intelligence; and Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who resigned his seat in the House on Wednesday while facing a congressional investigation into sex trafficking, as his attorney general.

Then on Thursday, Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vociferous vaccine skeptic who has promoted false conspiracy theories concerning healthcare, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump is known for defying tradition and going against the grain, but the recent appointments suggest a larger agenda, some political observers say.

“There is a difference between having a broader ideological mix and choosing [an accused] sex trafficker for attorney general of the United States,” said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s legislative affairs director during his first term and as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence.

“I think he’s trying to disrupt,” Short said of Trump. But “I’m not convinced that it’s clearly thought through.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Bakersfield Republican whose career in Congress was upended when Gaetz led a rebellion against him, predicted that at least the Gaetz nomination would fail, telling Bloomberg Television on Thursday that he “won’t get confirmed, everybody knows that.”

McCarthy called the nomination “a good deflection,” hinting at a popular Washington theory that Gaetz, even if defeated, could help Trump win approval of other controversial nominees by using up whatever willpower Republican senators have to take on the new president next year.

At the center of it all is Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who won an internal vote Wednesday to become Senate majority leader in the next Congress. He replaces Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate GOP leader who occasionally clashed with Trump during his first term but prevented an all-out intraparty war by largely acquiescing to the president. The Senate under Thune will be even more Trump-friendly, with more members who come into office with Trump’s support, while some of the more skeptical Republicans are no longer in office.

Trump had mixed results with his first-term nominations, even as he chose from an inexperienced talent pool. Several of his high-level nominees faced drawn-out battles — a few withdrew, but most were eventually approved.

Before Thune defeated two of his colleagues to win the leadership post, Trump said on social media that he wanted the new Senate leaders to push his nominees through using recess appointments, in which the Senate would declare itself closed for business for 10 days so the president can appoint a Cabinet secretary for the remainder of the two-year session.

The tactic, conceived in the horse-and-buggy days when Congress met part time, would probably be challenged in court. Opponents argue against the routine use of recess appointments, and members of the Senate are historically protective of their role as a check on the executive branch.

Thune told South Dakota reporters Wednesday that he would prefer to avoid a recess appointment but did not rule it out.

“I’m willing to grind through it and do it the old-fashioned way,” he said, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

He reiterated that point to ABC News on Thursday, promising that “we expect our committees to do their jobs and provide the advice and consent that is required under the Constitution.”

Lawmakers in both parties have already said they want to know more about the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, which was closed when he resigned his seat. The comments signal that they do not want to cede their right to review his record. One lawmaker who said he “absolutely” wants to see the House report was Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a high-ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee who ran against Thune for majority leader.

The use of recess appointments to avoid the Senate is a concern to some who’ve worked in the federal government.

Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said that immediately adjourning the Senate at the new president’s direction would signal a dark day for the country.

“This is the way it works in dictatorships,” said Painter, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Minnesota in 2018 as a Democrat. “To have a president sworn in and then immediately dissolve Congress? Absolutely nuts.”

But the pressure to push Trump’s preferred choices is mounting. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, one of Trump’s most ardent allies, warned would-be dissenters during an appearance on Fox Business that if they stand in the way of Trump’s agenda, “we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate.”

The Senate has a long tradition of protecting its status, as one of two houses in Congress, as part of a coequal branch of government, even if the president is in the same party. The late Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada rankled some fellow Democrats in 2009 when he said in an interview: “I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him.”

But a former Reid advisor, James Manley, said he believes Trump is consciously trying to erode that boundary, and he’s skeptical that Republican lawmakers have the stomach to stand up to him.

“The House is broken. They’ll do whatever he wants,” Manley said. “Now, he’s turned his attention to the Senate.”

Ben Olinsky, senior vice president of structural reform and governance at the liberal Center for American Progress, said that how the Senate handles this moment — where Trump is putting forward deeply questionable candidates while demanding the Senate allow them to sail through without vetting — “will tell us a lot about what’s going to happen in the next couple of years.”

“I absolutely think it’s a test of independence and also integrity for them,” Olinsky said. “It may be a direct loyalty test from the president.”

Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump’s pick of conservative loyalist Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general has Democrats sounding the alarm with Sen. Dick Durbin saying Gaetz “would be a disaster” in part because of Trump’s threat to use the Justice Department “to seek revenge on his political enemies.”

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.

HHS is a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.

He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.

— Jill Colvin

Though it’s not clear if Dimon was interested in a role. The announcement came as Trump has not yet named a Treasury Secretary for his incoming administration or others to fill economic and banking related roles.

Dimon had no plans to join Trump’s administration, according to news reports in recent weeks.

Trump, in a post on his social media network Truth Social on Thursday, said he respects Dimon “greatly” but “he will not be invited to be a part of the Trump Administration.”

“I thank Jamie for his outstanding service to our Country!” Trump added.

In a July interview with Bloomberg, Trump said Dimon was someone he was considering for Treasury Secretary. A few weeks later, he reversed himself, saying in a post on Truth Social that he didn’t know “who said it, or where it came from, perhaps the Radical Left, but I never discussed, or thought of, Jamie Dimon” for Treasury Secretary.

Republicans went to court in Pennsylvania on Thursday amid vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, as the campaigns prepare for a recount and press counties for favorable ballot-counting decisions.

The lawsuits ask courts not to allow counties to count mail-in ballots where the voter didn’t write a date on the return envelope or wrote an incorrect date. The two GOP suits could be among many before the last vote in the Senate race is counted, especially with the contest headed toward a state-mandated recount.

The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead.

After losing the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrats are grappling with how to handle transgender politics and policy following a campaign that featured withering and often misleading GOP attacks on the issue.

There’s plenty of second-guessing after President-elect Donald Trump anchored his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris with sweeping promises on the economy and immigration. But Democrats also won’t soon forget the punchline in anti-transgender Trump ads that became ubiquitous by Election Day: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”

“Week by week when that ad hit and stuck and we didn’t respond, I think that was the beginning of the end,” former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said of the 30-second spot that was part of $215 million in anti-transgender advertising by Trump and Republicans, according to tracking firm AdImpact.

Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that he’ll lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he intends to immediately take up President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to reinstate a policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Paul said he’ll be the committee’s new chair after Republicans won control of the Senate in this month’s elections. The new role will put Paul — a limited-government advocate and longtime skeptic of surveillance programs — in charge of a committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations, including the Department of Homeland Security. Paul has been the committee’s ranking Republican during Democratic control of the Senate.

Democrat Janelle Bynum won election to a U.S. House seat representing Oregon on Thursday, defeating Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

The district, which includes the Portland suburbs and stretches through Bend, was a top target for Democrats. Democrats lost this seat in 2022, when Jamie McLeod-Skinner defeated seven-term Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader in the primary but lost the general election. The district took in parts of more conservative central Oregon after 2022 redistricting.

Bynum represents Happy Valley and North Clackamas in the state Legislature. The Associated Press declared Bynum the winner at 12:47 p.m. EST.

Republican and Democratic senators alike on the Judiciary Committee that would review Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination are calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz to be made available to them.

“I think it’s going to be material in the proceedings,” said Sen. Thomas Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democrat who currently chairs the Judiciary Committee, earlier Thursday said in a statement, “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”

Thune did not mention Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard or other Trump picks that have raised deep concerns among several senators.

But he said senators should expect “an aggressive schedule until his nominees are confirmed.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve information it’s gathered on former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s intended nominee for attorney general, and also share it with the Senate.

Trump announced Gaetz as his pick for the post Wednesday and Gaetz immediately resigned from Congress, ending the investigation against him. The ethics panel said several months ago that its review included whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz has categorically denied all the allegations before the committee.

“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Durbin said Thursday. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”

The Democrat looking to unseat an incumbent Republican in a close Iowa congressional race, one of a handful yet to be called after Republicans won control of the U.S. House, has asked for a recount.

Democrat Christina Bohannan’s campaign on Thursday requested the recount in her bid against Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks to represent Iowa’s 1st District. The initial tally puts Bohannan fewer than 1,000 votes — less than a percentage point — behind Miller-Meeks.

The contest is a much tighter rematch of 2022, when Miller-Meeks won by 7 percentage points. Miller-Meeks earned a first term in Congress representing Iowa’s 2nd District when she defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes in 2020.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general sent a clear signal through Washington on Wednesday that Trump intends for his Justice Department to take a sharp-elbowed, hyperpartisan approach to law and order — one that is both unquestioningly loyal to Trump and openly antagonistic toward his political opponents, legal and political experts said.

That approach, after all, has long been the norm for Gaetz, a hard-right member of the House since 2017 who is deeply unpopular among his Democratic and Republican colleagues, but has won praise from Trump by being unflinchingly defensive of the former and future president and openly derisive of the various state and federal criminal cases against him.

“If anything shows Trump will make no effort at unity or conciliation, it is this pick,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Gaetz had submitted his resignation from Congress “effectively immediately,” in the hope that Florida officials can fill his House seat with another Republican by early January and the party’s thin majority in the chamber won’t be diminished as the next Trump administration gets underway.

Others noted that Gaetz’s departure from Congress also draws to a close an ongoing House ethics investigation against him.

Trump’s pick for the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official has been closely watched, given the stakes. Trump won the presidential election despite being a convicted felon with multiple criminal cases pending against him, and after having promised to use the Justice Department to turn the tables and go after his political foes.

Gaetz, 42, has echoed Trump’s claims that the FBI and others within the Justice Department have been politically co-opted and weaponized in recent years to go after Republicans — including Gaetz himself, who was the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation that ended with no charges last year.

The probe involved allegations that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. The separate investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which will now be closed out, was considering whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and whether he “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” among other things, the committee said in June.

Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

In announcing the selection, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Gaetz had distinguished himself in the House in part by calling for reforms in the Justice Department, and that as attorney general he will “root out the systemic corruption” and return the department “to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”

Gaetz called Trump’s nomination “an honor.” He wrote on X that if ending the “weaponized” Justice Department “means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!”

Gaetz has been on the far-right fringe of the Republican Party in Congress, one among a cohort of MAGA enthusiasts who have caused problems for the broader caucus on more than one occasion — including when they helped orchestrate the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, another member of the MAGA cohort, hailed Gaetz as an “incredible choice” and a “total repudiation of four years of tyranny by a government entity run amok” under President Biden.

Others in Congress expressed shock — and dismay — at the news of Gaetz’s nomination. Many, from both sides of the political aisle, suggested that Gaetz lacked the moral foundation needed for the position, and that he could face an uphill battle to winning confirmation in the Senate.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a chief Trump antagonist for years who was just elected to the Senate from California and will be sworn in next month, said Gaetz’s nomination “must be rejected” by his colleagues — especially given a recent decision by the Supreme Court that found that presidents enjoy sweeping criminal immunity for actions taken in their official capacity.

“First the Supreme Court granted a president immunity for weaponizing the Justice Department. Now Donald Trump wants to appoint Matt Gaetz as AG?” Schiff wrote on X. “Confirming him would mean affirming the worst potential abuses of DOJ.”

Several of Gaetz’s fellow Republicans also raised concerns, according to a host of online reports Wednesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Gaetz was not a “serious nomination” and that she looked forward to considering “somebody that is serious.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was “shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination — which she saw as a reminder of why the Senate’s role in confirming presidential nominations for important Cabinet positions is “so important.”

John Bolton, who has served in every GOP administration since Ronald Reagan’s and was Trump’s national security advisor in 2018 and 2019, called Trump’s pick of Gaetz “the worst nomination for a Cabinet position in American history,” and one that Republicans should oppose.

“This is something that falls well outside the scope of deference that should be given to a president in nominating members of the senior team,” Bolton said on “Meet the Press Now.” “Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job; he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude.”

How Gaetz’s nomination will be taken up by the Senate is unclear, but it will be an early test for Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune of South Dakota, another mainstream Republican. Trump in recent days has suggested that the Senate should give him unilateral power to appoint all of his nominees through recess appointments, which do not need Senate approval.

The president-elect’s pick for attorney general is widely viewed as one of his most important decisions.

Trump has spent much of the last eight years under criminal investigation by the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies. He is a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in a New York case, and facing additional criminal charges in two federal cases and one in Georgia.

Experts say he is eager to install a loyalist as attorney general who will not only fight to end any of those prosecutions that are still active by the time he takes office, but who will protect him against any new prosecutions moving forward and use the criminal justice system to go after Trump’s enemies, including political opponents and the prosecutors who charged him with crimes or pursued civil cases against him or his businesses.

Trump spoke extensively about such retribution on the campaign trail.

Mark Paoletta, a conservative attorney serving on Trump’s transition team, said Monday on X that Trump’s agenda included “stopping the lawfare and persecution of political opponents,” but also “holding accountable those who weaponized their government authority to abuse Americans.”

Trump has repeatedly expressed regret for not appointing people more loyal to him as attorney general during his first term, which was defined in part by the Justice Department’s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Trump had two attorneys general during his first term. The first was Jeff Sessions, an Alabama senator who served on Trump’s 2016 transition team.

Trump became infuriated with Sessions when he recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe, and his top deputy, Rod Rosenstein, appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as a special counsel to independently oversee the investigation.

Mueller’s investigation found a slate of communications between Trump campaign officials and Russian agents, but not enough to justify criminal charges against Trump. Still, the probe mired the first half of Trump’s presidency in scandal. Trump ultimately fired Sessions.

Trump also soured on his next attorney general, William Barr, who backed Trump through the conclusion of the Mueller probe but broke with him over his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Barr has said that when he told the then-president there was no evidence of election fraud, Trump became furious with him. Barr stepped down in December 2020, the month before President Biden was inaugurated.

Barr later said Trump “never really had a good idea of, you know, the role of the Department of Justice [and] to some extent, you know, the president’s role.” Trump has blasted Barr as “gutless” and a “coward.”

While not etched in law, political tradition in this country since Watergate has been for the Justice Department to operate independently of the White House. Trump did not follow those guidelines.

In addition to pressuring the agency to pursue certain investigations and not others, and ridiculing his Justice Department leaders and Mueller, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid the Russia investigation. FBI directors usually serve a fixed 10-year term, and Comey was the first one fired since 1993.

Trump and some legal minds in his orbit have suggested going after prosecutors who have targeted him and his companies — including special counsel Jack Smith, who has pursued criminal cases against Trump for his incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general who won a massive fraud judgment against Trump for inflating his net worth to win preferable insurance and loan terms.

James recently held a news conference alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in which both Democrats said they were ready to fight Trump’s agenda and abuses of power.

Trump has also suggested exacting retribution against several California officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently held a news conference similar to Hochul’s; Schiff, who helped lead the resistance to Trump during his first term, including during both of his impeachments; and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long been one of Trump’s most effective critics.

On Wednesday, experts said Gaetz, if confirmed, would be a ready partner in such efforts.

Chemerinsky, of Berkeley Law, said that Trump “could not have picked anyone more far-right or more a loyalist than Matt Gaetz,” and that there “is every reason to fear that [Gaetz would] be even less independent than Jeff Sessions or William Barr.”

Gaetz is married to Ginger Luckey Gaetz, the sister of major Trump donor Palmer Luckey of Newport Beach. Luckey, a Long Beach native, sold his virtual reality company to Facebook for $3 billion at the age of 21. He hosted major fundraisers for the president-elect in the 2024 and 2020 campaigns.

Gaetz himself attended a Trump rally in the Coachella Valley earlier this year.

Times staff writer Noah Bierman in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, was once embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he’s been tapped to lead, and has been under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over allegations including sexual misconduct.

That probe effectively ended Wednesday, though, when Gaetz resigned from Congress.

Gaetz, a staunch Trump defender, has spent years enmeshed in scandals that threaten to derail his confirmation as the nation’s top federal law enforcement officer by the Republican-led Senate.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and said last year that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.

Trump’s attorney general is expected to oversee radical changes to the Justice Department, which has been the target of Trump’s ire over two criminal cases it brought accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump, who cast himself as the victim of politically motivated prosecutions, vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail to carry out retribution against his political enemies if returned to the White House.

It’s unlikely Gaetz would be confirmed in time to oversee special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump that are both expected to wind down before the incoming president takes office. Smith is expected to leave his post before Trump takes office, but special counsels are expected to produce reports on their work that historically are made public, and it remains unclear when such a document might be released.

In a statement Wednesday announcing his pick, Trump said Gaetz would root out “systemic corruption” at the Justice Department and return the department “to its true mission of fighting crime and upholding our democracy and constitution.”

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gaetz wrote, “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”

Hours before the announcement, Gaetz said in a social media post that there needs to be a “full court press against this WEAPONIZED government.” He added, “And if that means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!” If confirmed as attorney general, he would oversee both the FBI and the ATF, formally known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Inside a private meeting of House Republicans, the news that Trump had chosen Gaetz to lead the Justice Department sent a shock. Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho said he has a hard time believing Gaetz will be able to get through the Senate confirmation process. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she didn’t believe Gaetz was a serious candidate.

Some of Gaetz’ allies in the House defended him as Trump’s pick, pointing to his experience as a member on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked Wednesday whether she thinks Gaetz could be confirmed, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a fellow Florida Republican, told reporters that many will try to “smear him,” but “the evidence will speak for itself.”

The federal sex trafficking investigation that began under Attorney General Bill Barr during Trump’s first term focused on allegations that Gaetz and onetime political ally Joel Greenberg paid underage girls and escorts or offered them gifts in exchange for sex.

Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

Federal investigators scrutinized a trip that Gaetz took to the Bahamas with a group of women and a doctor who donated to his campaign, and whether the women were paid or received gifts to have sex with the men, according to people familiar with the matter who were not allowed to publicly discuss the investigation. Prosecutors also investigated whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, and scrutinized Gaetz’s connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether his associates sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored, the people have said.

Gaetz had remained under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he was part of a scheme that led to the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

The committee began its review of Gaetz in April 2021, deferred its work in response to a Justice Department request, and renewed its work shortly after Gaetz announced that the Justice Department had ended a sex trafficking investigation.

Over the summer, the committee provided an unusual public update into its long-running investigation, saying its review now includes whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz has categorically denied all the allegations before the committee.

Rep. Michael Guest, the Republican chair of the House Ethics Committee, had told The Associated Press that Gaetz’s nomination did not change the panel’s ongoing probe. But Gaetz’s resignation means the committee will no longer have jurisdiction to continue its probe.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Lisa Mascaro, Michael Balsamo and Stephen Groves contributed from Washington.

Anaheim, Riverside and the Riverside Convention Center’s operator will each pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene that accused the cities of wrongfully canceling their 2021 rallies.

The two Congress members had scheduled a rally at the city-owned Riverside Convention Center in July 2021 that was later canceled after Raincross Hospitality Management Corporation, which has a contract to manage the convention center, backed out of hosting Gaetz and Greene’s planned rally. They filed their lawsuit in July 2023.

Plans to hold the two’s rally at The Grand Theater in Anaheim also fell through. Ultimately, they held a brief “free speech” rally outside of Riverside City Hall.

The settlement agreement has Anaheim, Riverside and Raincross Hospitality each sending a $50,000 check to the Constitutional Counsel Group. In exchange, the cities and Raincross Hospitality will be dismissed from the case. Several civil rights organizations and other groups were also sued.

Gaetz, a Florida congressman, has promised to return to California and hold the rally as planned.

The Constitutional Counsel Group was the law firm of John Eastman, a former Chapman University School of Law dean and Trump adviser, who devised ways for Trump to remain in office after losing the 2020 election. Eastman had been listed as an attorney on the case but currently can’t practice law in California.

The Constitutional Counsel Group’s address is listed at a UPS store in Salinas. The group has filed amicus briefs for recent U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Gaetz and Greene’s attorneys submitted a proposed order to dismiss the cities and Raincross Hospitality from the case on Monday.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Riverside reiterated a statement it and Anaheim had agreed to as a stipulation in the settlement.

“The cities of Riverside and Anaheim are committed to upholding the First Amendment rights of all people and groups, regardless of views expressed or of any political affiliation, and welcome all individuals or organizations seeking to hold an event or rally in Riverside or Anaheim,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for Anaheim said the City Council gave general direction and parameters in closed session to agree to a settlement. An attorney for Raincross Hospitality did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The settlement was entered in on Aug. 28 and signed by the involved parties in September and October.

A judge earlier this year rejected the cities’ attempts to be dismissed from the case.

“I am pleased to announce that we’ve reached a settlement with the cities of Riverside and Anaheim, California, and the Raincross Hospitality Management Corp,” Gaetz said in a prepared statement. “In 2021, Marjorie Taylor Greene and I had our First Amendment rights trampled when left wing city council members conspired to cancel our planned fundraiser and rally in California. Needless to say, we didn’t take this sitting down, so we sued, and we’ve now won, bigly.”

A federal judge has ruled that Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia can move forward with their lawsuit against two California cities where their political rallies were canceled in 2021.

In a 22-page decision, U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera ruled Friday that the two lawmakers had grounds to allege that the cancellation of their rallies in Riverside and Anaheim was “expressly predicated on viewpoint discrimination.” The judge, however, rejected the claim that the cities conspired with civil rights groups to shut down the events, calling it a “conspiracy theory that relies purely on conjecture.”

“The Complaint — even charitably construed with all reasonable inferences drawn in Plaintiffs’ favor — is utterly devoid of any specifics plausibly alleging such an agreement,” the judge wrote. “And without an unlawful conspiracy, all that is left to aver against the Nonprofit Defendants are the unremarkable allegations that they exercised their own First Amendment rights to lobby for the cancellation of the event. That is protected.”

The two lawmakers who are known for their ardent support of former President Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court last year alleging that the venues caved under pressure from the cities of Anaheim and Riverside and canceled contracts for their America First rally because they disagreed with Greene and Gaetz politically.

Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster said the city remains confident in its position.

“While we disagree with the decision, it isn’t unusual to see a claim move forward at this early stage, regardless of the court’s initial thoughts on the strengths of the case,” Lyster said.

The lawsuit also accused a handful of advocacy or political organizations of conspiring with the cities to push the venues to cancel the rally. Vera dismissed that claim in his decision.

“The effect of Plaintiffs’ unprecedented and stunningly deficient pleading — haling nine civil rights groups into federal court for speaking out against an event — should shock in equal measure civic members from across the political spectrum,” Vera wrote.

Greene and Gaetz tried to host their rally at two locations in Orange County and one in Riverside in July 2021, but the venue operators kept backing out.

They first tried to host the rally at the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills, but the venue opted to cancel after receiving a flurry of calls and emails about the event.

The rally was moved to the Riverside Convention Center. But Raincross Hospitality Management, which operates the convention center, said it decided to cancel the event because of a discrepancy on the certificate of insurance it had been provided, according to court records.

With less than 24 hours until the rally, the group moved it to the Grand Theater, a private venue in Anaheim, but the outcry over the event followed it.

An Anaheim code enforcement officer allegedly called the theater the morning of the rally and told operators that the venue’s conditional use permit would be in jeopardy if they allowed it to go forward, according to the lawsuit. The Grand Theater canceled the rally.

With time running out and no venue, the lawmakers held a protest “against communism” outside Riverside City Hall.

Greene and Gaetz celebrated the judge’s decision to allow the case to move forward on social media Monday. Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “spreading the America First message is our duty and our distinct privilege.”

“We will win these important free speech cases against California cities Riverside and Anaheim and the insane left!” Greene wrote on X. “Then we will return to CA and hold America First rallies inviting everyone in California that hates what the Democrats have done to their state and our country!”

Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.