Former Federal Prosecutor Says There’s ‘Zero Chance’ Matt Gaetz Would Pass Background Check for Lowest-Level DOJ Job
Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman said embattled attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz would have no chance at passing a basic background check to work at a low-tier position at the Department of Justice, let alone lead it.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz on Wednesday, the lawmaker resigned his position from the House of Representatives, effectively immediately. The House Ethics Committee was set to vote Friday on whether to release a report summarizing its investigation into Gaetz regarding accusations of sexual relations with a minor, illicit drug use including ecstasy, obstruction of an investigation, and other allegations. After Gaetz resigned, the probe became moot, and the committee is not expected to release the report.
Last year, the Department of Justice ended its own investigation into Gaetz and declined to bring charges.
Appearing on Friday’s All In on MSNBC, Litman explained that the Department of Justice conducts rigorous background checks on all potential hires. Gaetz’s candidacy, he said, would fail spectacularly for this reason.
“It’s a clear ‘break glass’ moment,” Litman said. “There’s never been someone as unqualified, no prosecutorial experience, no legal experience to speak of, but that’s the least of it. Someone who comes to the department with actual contempt and hostility for it, it’s gonna prompt a major exodus. It’s gonna prompt judges and juries around the country to have less credibility in the DOJ, which is the really stock and trade of the DOJ.”
Litman then outlined why Gaetz would not be able to get a job at the lower levels of the department:
How do you judge character? How do you judge conduct? By a background investigation, which I did. Four prospective judges and I underwent twice.
There are tens of thousands of professionals in the Department of Justice. None of them, none of them could be hired for their job if they did what Matt Gaetz is accused of doing. MDMA is a friggin’ Schedule I controlled substance. Anyone who did that after law school would be absolutely disqualified.
And it’s more than that. On all of these behaviors, there have been so many people we don’t know about who were disqualified after background investigations because they pose a risk to the national security. Gaetz is now saying as prominent as can be, “I’ve never done any of these.”
What does that mean to any FBI agent, who, of course, he abhors? National security risk. Joel Greenberg [is] rotting in jail for the same thing Matt Gaetz did. Eleven years in Florida. What does he have on him that he can blackmail? What girls – minor or not – can come forward about their drug-fueled orgies, every single one that Matt Gaetz denies.
What else was he doing, you know, bragging on the [House] floor, showing pictures of sexual conquest? For character in national security, there is zero, zero chance that anyone who had done that, much less what a background investigation would turn up… could even get the first step toward an appointment at the lowest professional level of the Department of Justice, not to mention attorney general.
Watch above via MSNBC.
