Vice President-elect J.D. Vance lobbied key GOP senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to back former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general as the controversial nominee’s fate is on life support.
Vance facilitated a meeting with Gaetz and several conservative allies on the Senate Judiciary Committee vital to the political firebrand’s confirmation process, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
The in-person conversations, which senators described as a mix of strategizing and Q&A, took place on the same day that the House Ethics Committee was set to vote on whether to release a sought-after report about sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz.
“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,” Graham said in a statement after a meeting. “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.”
Neither Hawley nor Lee said they pressed Gaetz about specific allegations against him, including those from an attorney who says his two female clients testified to House Ethics they were paid by Gaetz for sex and witnessed him have sex with a minor.
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Gaetz has denied the claims and any wrongdoing. The Justice Department previously investigated similar allegations, as well as sex trafficking. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats sent a letter on Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting any documents and information it previously collected on Gaetz.
“The grave public allegations against Mr. Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government,” Senate Judiciary Democrats wrote to Wray. “The unanswered questions regarding Mr. Gaetz’s alleged conduct are particularly significant given that his associate, Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking charge for which Mr. Gaetz was also investigated.”
No criminal charges were ever brought against Gaetz, which he noted in his meeting with the Republican senators, according to those in the room. Vance and Gaetz were set to have additional meetings with other individual GOP senators later that day.
“[It was a] relatively brief meeting, and we have a lot of topics to cover,” Lee said. “He did spend a number of minutes talking about the unfairness and the lack of truth of the allegations being pursued by the committee, and the fact that the DOJ didn’t prosecute.”
Seeking to overcome deep skepticism from other Republican senators that his nomination is tenable, those who huddled with him predicted Gaetz would pitch others he’s set to meet with to “give him a chance to make his case” via a public confirmation hearing when the majority swings back to the GOP in January.
“My presumption is I’ll vote for all the president’s nominees,” Hawley said after the meeting. “He thanked me for my support, but also just that he had the chance to get to his confirmation hearing, and respond, and to lay out his vision. It was totally reasonable.”
Blackburn issued a statement backing a “speedy” confirmation for Gaetz, saying “President-Elect Trump’s cabinet is going to shake up the D.C. swamp.”
The House Ethics Committee is meeting Wednesday afternoon about whether to release the report, as Vance and Gaetz continued making the rounds with more Republican senators.
Prompted whether the sexual allegations would be disqualifying if the report found them to be credible, Lee said it would be “really troubling” but that he would not “prejudge facts we don’t have.”
“If the committee concludes one thing and he says another, there would undoubtedly be a lot of additional conversation,” he added.
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Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who does not sit on the Judiciary Committee but has already committed to supporting Gaetz’s confirmation, said Vance’s role of greasing the wheels with fellow colleagues is a natural fit for the first-term-senator-turned-vice-president-elect.
“I think he kind of feels like it’s his job right now because he knows everybody here,” Tuberville said of Vance. “There’s got to be a dialogue.”
