Trumps picks so far for his cabinet

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

Inside Trump’s latest flurry of controversial Cabinet picks

CNN

—

In the days after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, allies described his transition effort as far more disciplined than his first post-victory period in 2016.



Then, a 24-hour stretch — that started with Trump’s selection of Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary on Tuesday night, included tapping former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence on Wednesday, and culminated with his selection of bomb-throwing Florida congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general later that day — turned that perception on its head.



JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives on November 13, 2024 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House and will also meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Related article

Why Trump is trying to outrage Washington with his controversial Cabinet picks



Their selections — which followed Trump finding the other candidates he’d interviewed boring, and searching for firebrands — represented the ascendancy of the president-elect’s “Make America Great Again” orbit over the more traditional Republican establishment.



And they underscored the quality the president-elect values most as he prepares to return to the Oval Office: Loyalty.



Trump’s latest round of Cabinet announcements stunned much of Washington. But the hair-raising nature of Trump’s picks was intended to be a feature, not a bug, say people briefed by the team.



“People being in a state of shock was the goal, that’s exactly what the MAGA gang wants,” said one Trump ally, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations with the president-elect’s team. “They want people who are a total challenge to the system.”



Trump on Wednesday visited Washington, where he met privately for nearly two hours with President Joe Biden and visited lawmakers. On Capitol Hill, Republicans were gathering to choose the party’s leaders for the next Congress — with House Speaker Mike Johnson retaining his gavel, and South Dakota Sen. John Thune winning a three-way race to lead the Senate GOP.



But the real action has been at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where the president-elect is surrounding himself with political allies old and new, such as Elon Musk — who was in the room Wednesday when Trump met with House Republicans in DC. Trump joked that he couldn’t get rid of the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX pioneer whom he’d tapped as the co-leader of what he’s calling the new Department of Government Efficiency.



“He loves Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said of Musk.



Unlike Trump Tower in 2016, where candidates strode by a rope line of reporters before stepping into the elevator to meet Trump, there are no cameras at Mar-a-Lago to capture the gauntlet of candidates traveling in to kiss Trump’s ring. Between the conservative think tanks and Trump’s own transition members, extensive work had already been done on personnel and day-one policies this time around – compared to Trump ripping up former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2016 transition playbook and starting from scratch.



Trump’s transition team includes close to 100 people, with some working at Mar-a-Lago and others at the campaign office in Palm Beach and in Washington. The team develops lists of candidates for key posts, runs through the pros and cons with the president-elect and then whittles those lists down for interviews. Some of the names of top contenders are handed off to research firms to be vetted.



And then there is Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, whose iron grip on Trump is said to be among the key qualities that landed her the job. Sources close to the transition said some of the unpredictable picks shouldn’t belie the discipline Wiles has instilled.



“The discipline is that none of it leaked,” said one source close to the transition, referring to the Hegseth, Gabbard and Gaetz selections.


Inside Trump’s transition

Trump’s transition effort had begun with relatively orthodox choices — including Wiles, who led Trump’s campaign, as chief of staff. CNN reported on Monday Trump was likely to tap Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state – an announcement he made official on Wednesday.



But Trump, frustrated by his short list of potential Pentagon chiefs, chose Hegseth, a combat veteran and strident Trump promoter in his role as a Fox News host, who had abruptly been called to travel to Mar-a-Lago on Monday and announced as Trump’s choice for defense secretary after they met the next day.



Then, on Wednesday, Trump announced Gabbard, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and left the party in 2022, for director of national intelligence — another nomination sure to set off a major confirmation battle.



Gabbard, who served in the Army National Guard before joining the US Army Reserve, like Trump, has expressed an isolationist approach to foreign policy. And like Trump, she has frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries, but in some cases, murderers, including the presidents of Syria and Russia.



Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon told CNN he had taken Gabbard to meet with Trump about joining his first administration in 2016.



“It did not work out then, but now we have one of the strongest America First proponents nominated to take charge of an out-of-control and destructive intelligence community,” Bannon said.



To be sure, MAGA favorites have been cast aside for other roles. Donald Trump Jr. favored longtime Trump loyalist Richard Grenell to serve as secretary of state, despite questions about whether Grenell could be confirmed.



Trump believed he owed a big job to Rubio, who was runner-up for the vice presidential nomination and campaigned closely — and bilingually — with Trump in the final stretch, especially after the Florida Republican stood quietly by as comedian Tony Hinchcliffe denigrated Puerto Ricans at a Madison Square Garden rally. Rubio later had to field questions on the matter from reporters, whom he told it “wasn’t a good idea” for Hinchliffe to have been at the rally.



As the final considerations for the State Department were being discussed, Vice President-elect JD Vance, who at other times has urged the team not to pick a “neocon,” sources said, was quiet when it came to Grenell’s defense.



How Trump chose Gaetz

Multiple sources close to Trump have described the president-elect as feeling he had a mandate to deliver on his campaign-trail promises — including dismantling the Justice Department — after winning the popular vote against Vice President Kamala Harris.



Much like his defense secretary pick, Trump had also grown frustrated with his options for attorney general. He had met in person with some candidates, including Mark Paoletta and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, but “wasn’t blown away by anyone,” and none of them “checked the all the boxes,” a source familiar with Trump’s transition effort said. Another source said Trump was looking for more of a firebrand.



The role of attorney general has long been viewed by Trump as one of, if not the, most important positions he would fill. When he left office in January 2021, he privately griped that his biggest regret was who he had chosen to lead the Justice Department — specifically referring to his attorneys general Jeff Sessions and William Barr, both of whom, by the end of his term, he viewed as disloyal.



Now, Trump plans to scrap the Justice Department’s tradition of operating independently from White House political pressure. He has also been given reassurance by the Supreme Court’s recent decision that presidents receive immunity for official acts. Trump has told those working on the transition that this time, he wants to surround himself with people who will carry out his agenda and those he can trust — with loyalty remaining the leading prerequisite.



Gaetz — a longtime supporter of Trump who two sources familiar with his plans said spent several days at Mar-a-Lago over the past week — fit that bill, even though he is a controversial figure loathed by many Republicans on Capitol Hill in part because of his role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023 and throwing the party into weeks of chaos.



Those sources added that a slate of deputy attorneys general who weren’t expected to have reputations as controversial as Gaetz would follow, and would be tasked with executing the day-to-day operations of the department.



Trump is seriously considering naming his lead attorney Todd Blanche to serve as the next deputy attorney general, the second-highest position in the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with his thinking.



Blanche has represented Trump for the last 18 months and defended him during his criminal hush money trial in Manhattan earlier this year. Because of his proximity to Trump and Trump’s trust in him, it was widely expected inside the president-elect’s inner circle that if he won, Blanche would likely follow him into the federal government.



One person close to the matter cautioned that no final decisions have been made.



Confirmation battle looms

In choosing Gaetz, Trump is ignoring concerns about the Florida Republican’s ability to be confirmed by the Senate, which stem from his move to oust McCarthy and an ethics probe into him.



Gaetz opted to resign from Congress on Wednesday — a decision that could prevent the House Ethics Committee from releasing a long-awaited report that was expected to be made public as soon as Friday.



The committee had been probing allegations that Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, including ever having sex with a minor or paying for sex.



House Speaker Mike Johnson said Gaetz’s resignation will allow Florida to fill his seat close to the start of the new Congress on January 3, when Republicans will have a slim majority.



“We’re grateful for that,” Johnson said.



But selections like Gaetz will soon test the willingness of Republicans on Capitol Hill to go along with Trump’s wishes.



There are already signs a heated confirmation battle is brewing.



Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski called Gaetz an “unserious candidate” to helm the Justice Department. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican, said she was “shocked” by the nomination. Asked if Gaetz can win confirmation, Texas Sen. John Cornyn responded: “We’ll find out, won’t we.”



Trump has even floated circumventing the Senate entirely by filling Cabinet posts through recess appointments. Thune said Wednesday he would “explore all options” to confirm Trump’s picks.



“We always allow the president to have the benefit of the doubt, but we still have to do our role in terms of due diligence,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, another South Dakota Republican.



He would not say whether he would vote to confirm Gaetz, or predict whether Gaetz would win the Senate’s approval.



“I just don’t have a magic wand in front of me, or, for that matter, a crystal ball,” Rounds said. “I can’t tell you that.”



CNN’s Alayna Treene, Kaitlan Collins, Annie Grayer, Danya Gainor, Holmes Lybrand, Dana Bash, Haley Talbot, Jeremy Herb, Katie Bo Lillis, Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.



www.cnn.com/2024/11/14/politics/trump-controversial-cabinet-picks/index.html


If Gaetz is not confirmed by the Senate will Trump consider that as being  a state of disloyalty by the Senate and what then can he do? Any Senator who votes to not confirm might have a huge problem with Trump.......

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

Democrats, GOP clash over release of Matt Gaetz ethics investigation

USA TODAY

Joey Garrison and Riley Beggin, USA TODAY

Updated November 14, 2024 at 2:52 PM


WASHINGTON — A partisan standoff appears to be brewing over whether a House Ethics Committee report will be released before the Senate considers President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Matt Gaetz for U.S. attorney general.



Gaetz, who resigned Wednesday shortly after his nomination, has been the subject of a three-year investigation by the panel over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting “improper gifts” and giving out special favors to individuals with whom he had relationships.



The House Ethics Committee, which expanded its probe in June to include additional allegations, was to decide on Friday whether to release its report, but his resignation effectively ended the investigation.



On Thursday morning, the panel's chairman, Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters as he left the floor that he did not plan to make the document public.



“What happens in Ethics is confidential. We're going to maintain that confidentiality,” he said, according to a report in Politico. “I’ve given my statement yesterday and there’s nothing new that has changed from then until now.”




Guest declined further comment when asked if he was even allowed to release the report if Gaetz was no longer a lawmaker.



Calls for the Gaetz report to be shared with other lawmakers escalated on Thursday when Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who also serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement called on the House panel to "preserve and share" its work.



More: 'The Hammer of Justice is coming:' Elon Musk defends Matt Gaetz



"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. "We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people."



Durbin added: "Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.”



Gaetz was previously under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him. The DOJ ended the investigation in February 2023 and did not bring charges against Gaetz.


Trump's Gaetz nomination as AG sent shockwaves through Washington, stunning Democrats and Republicans alike. Gaetz, an attorney and hardline MAGA loyalist, has no experience as a prosecutor. The firebrand Republican has been a vocal critic of the Justice Department from his seat on the House Judiciary Committee, accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland of "weaponizing" the department by prosecuting Trump.



In nominating Gaetz to head up the Justice Department, Trump − who in 2023 was indicted in four separate criminal cases − said "few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System." Trump pleaded not guilty in all four cases and was convicted in one of them after a trial. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed retribution against his political enemies.



Senate Republicans say the facts on Gaetz investigation will come out

The Senate Judiciary Committee has the power to subpoena the Gaetz report. While House Republicans, led by Guest, moved to keep the report confidential, Senate Republicans vowed the details will come out eventually.



Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who serves on the committee that will have oversight over Gaetz's nomination, told reporters Thursday: "I don't see any relevant information that should be withheld."



"We also have the resources of the FBI to do a background investigation. So one way or another, around here, the facts ultimately come out," he said. "I think it's in the president's best interest that he not be surprised and we should be fully informed of what the facts are."



Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, agreed. "I am confident that whatever the information and findings are of the House Ethics Committee will eventually be brought out either through the FBI background investigation or the committee's scrutiny of the nominee or through questioning at the hearings."



It's unclear whether Gaetz has the votes for Senate confirmation as attorney general even in a new Republican-controlled Senate. However, Republican senators might be reluctant to push back at Trump's pick following his decisive election victory.



Durbin next year will lose his power, along with all Democrats, and it'll be the GOP-led Senate that handles Gaetz's confirmation hearing with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, expected to lead the chamber's Judiciary Committee.




House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday he asked Gaetz for his reasoning for stepping down from his post, and he cited state law that outlines "an eight-week period to select and fill a vacant seat."



"If you start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as Jan. 3 when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress," Johnson said.



Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., a member of the House Judicial Committee, on Thursday demanded the Ethics Committee "come forward and transparently show us what they found, and then let the chips fall where they may."



"A takeaway from these appointments is that President-elect Trump is rewarding loyalty," Dean said in an interview on CNN. "It is open corruption. We saw in the first administration of Mr. Trump. He tried to surround himself, and he did surround himself with very credible Republicans to work with him, most of whom got fired, dismissed or quit. This time around, he's just going with loyalists."



Contributing: Bart Jansen and David Jackson. Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.



This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats, GOP clash over release of Matt Gaetz ethics investigation


www.aol.com/democrats-gop-clash-over-release-172833143.html

Will be interesting if this guy is confirmed by Senate and if not then it will be even more interesting. 

[BHU]

Trump wants recess appointment because he knows that the flunkies he wants to appoint like that degenerate Gaetz & that Fox hack will have a hard time with confirmation.

It's his first step into destroying our Democracy by sidestepping the HOR & Senate.

"Heil MAGA"!

[clarencebunsen]

Most of the cabinet proposals so far have not been very impressive.

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

Gaetz pick raises fears that Trump will seek ‘retribution’ on political foes

With president-elect likely to use DoJ to crush enemies, only hope lies in staffers refusing to carry out illegal orders



Peter Stone in Washington

Mon 18 Nov 2024 06.00 EST

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As Donald Trump moves fast to expand his influence over prosecutorial and legal decisions while revamping the US justice department, concerns are rising quickly about how he may abuse his powers to target political foes for “retribution” as he often suggested during his campaign, say ex-federal prosecutors.



Fueling those fears was the president-elect’s stunning decision to choose ultra-loyalist and firebrand Florida representative Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general and help fight what Trump calls a “weaponized government” that he says baselessly used a special counsel to file criminal charges against him for trying to subvert his 2020 election loss.



Trump’s pick of Gaetz quickly set off alarm bells among former justice department officials and some congressional Republicans who view him as unfit due to ethics and legal problems that for years have dogged Gaetz, and could seriously jeopardize his confirmation by the Senate.



Above all, the choice of Gaetz underscores the premium Trump places on selecting a loyalist who can help him expand his powers at the justice department to further his revenge agenda, and avoid the conflicts Trump had at times with Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr when they were attorneys general in his first administration.



“It’s an extraordinary choice,” said the former justice department inspector general Michael Bromwich. “In a world where there are plenty of lawyers willing to do Trump’s bidding, he chooses the candidate who has so much baggage. He’s testing his strength and if anyone in his party has the backbone to oppose him.



[Matt Gaetz] is an extraordinary choice. [Trump is] testing his strength and if anyone in his party has the backbone to oppose him

Michael Bromwich, former DoJ inspector general


“Gaetz will not be able to obtain a security clearance because of the sex-trafficking criminal investigation that was finally closed a year ago, the House ethics committee investigation, and other acts of mischief. It’s hard to imagine he is capable of being confirmed even with a Republican majority in the Senate.”



Similarly, Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University and an ex-federal prosecutor, deplored Trump’s choice of Gaetz. “Trump’s selection of him shows a contempt for the department that is sure to lead those within it, particularly in the DC area, to think hard about whether they can bear to stay,” he said.



But in tapping Gaetz, Trump lavishly praised him, declaring he “will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department”.



Further, Trump’s picking Gaetz jibed with older concerns about Trump’s debunked claims he was the victim of a vendetta and “lawfare” led by the special counsel Jack Smith, who filed criminal charges against Trump for conspiring to subvert his 2020 loss and for improperly taking hundreds of classified documents after he left office.



Trump and his lawyers have vehemently denied Smith’s charges.



Last month, Trump said he would fire Smith in “two seconds” and that Smith ought to be “thrown out of the country”. Likewise, Trump’s multibillionaire ally Elon Musk said Smith “cannot go unpunished”, and the House judiciary chair, Jim Jordan, has warned Smith to “preserve everything” and suggested investigations could be coming.



Smith is now in the process of winding down his two investigations and planning to leave his post before Trump takes office in January given that Gaetz would almost certainly move to drop the cases at Trump’s request, say ex-justice department prosecutors.



Compounding concerns about Trump’s plans to exert more influence at the justice department was the US supreme court’s highly controversial ruling on 1 July that granted presidents wide-ranging immunity from prosecution for their “official” acts.



Critics worry too that the rule of law and the justice department will be badly weakened in light of Trump’s often calling those convicted of crimes for their violent actions during the January 6 insurrection to block the certification of Biden’s win “patriots”, and suggested that he would grant many pardons when he takes office.



In another sign on Thursday that Trump is moving aggressively to overhaul the justice department, he tapped Todd Blanche, the key lawyer who defended him against the Smith charges and the 34 counts of business fraud that he was convicted on in New York, to be deputy attorney general.



Ex-justice department officials say Trump risks violating historical standards of independence with his threats to punish his political enemies who besides Smith include Biden, the ex-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and others.



“Trump’s revenge agenda is utterly inconsistent with the Department of Justice’s standards for initiating investigations and prosecutions,” said Bromwich. “Anyone in DoJ who implements that agenda would violate not only historical practice but specific DoJ requirements embodied in its internal regulations.



“Although they might curry favor with the White House, they would subject themselves to misconduct investigations within DoJ – unless that function is neutered – and risk the loss of their license to practice law.”



In a related vein, Bromwich warned: “There is no doubt that the Republican Congress will be willing accomplices in the pursuit of Trump’s enemies, including people who investigated and prosecuted him. The saving grace is the incompetence of the investigators who demonstrated their ineptness – over and over again – in pursuing the impeachment of President Biden and various other wild goose chases.”



Other ex-prosecutors worry Trump now may move aggressively to target his political foes given the supreme court presidential immunity ruling this year.



“I have concerns about a Trump administration in which he now enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution,” said Barbara McQuade, a former top prosecutor in the eastern district of Michigan who now teaches law at the University of Michigan. “An order by Trump to his attorney general to prosecute his rivals would be barred from prosecution,” giving Trump a freer hand to target his foes.



McQuade noted: “Even a loyalist attorney general can’t prosecute a case without assistants. I am hopeful that career professionals at DoJ would refuse to carry out illegal orders [and] that could result in their resignations or firings, and then replacement by people who are willing to obey.”



McQuade stressed too: “After Watergate, the justice department installed norms designed to protect it from partisan influence. Gaetz seems determined to take a sledgehammer to those norms.”



Richman worries Jordan and other Trump allies could try to undermine justice department independence to further Trump’s revenge agenda and bring law enforcement personnel to testify before Congress on their past actions under the Biden administration. “Should this happen – and it may start with Jack Smith and the career prosecutors who worked with him – the damage to department morale and effectiveness will be grievous,” he said.



Meanwhile, it’s not clear what will happen with Smith’s extensive work documenting his charges against Trump for conspiring to overturn his loss in 2020 and leaving office with a large cache of classified documents



Smith is reportedly working on a final report about his findings in the two federal cases charging Trump with criminal conduct to submit to Merrick Garland, which the attorney general has the option of making public before he leaves office.



Smith also faces a decision about whether to indict any of the co-conspirators who were unnamed but widely identified in the election-subversion case, although any Trump allies he charged would very likely get presidential pardons, say ex-prosecutors.



In another legal area, critics say that if Trump goes ahead with granting many presidential pardons to January 6 insurrectionists as he has suggested, that would be very damaging to the rule of law and justice department morale. While Trump has hedged at times about just how many people he would pardon of the more than 1,500 convicted of crimes for taking part in the violent attack on the Capitol, he told a CNN town hall in May 2023: “I am inclined to pardon many of them.”



“I am concerned that he may recklessly and contemptuously pardon the most serious of the January 6 perpetrators despite their insurrection and violence,” Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House lawyer and ex-justice department official, said.



Cobb said he was concerned about Trump’s overhaul of the justice department and what the Gaetz pick portends. “I’m concerned about the integrity of the entire department given the Gaetz appointment. Vengeance for Trump and further violence to the rule of law beyond what Trump’s crimes to date have seen are the desired consequences of having Gaetz as AG,” he said.


www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/18/matt-gaetz-donald-trump-department-of-justice?utm_term=673b3a59f59345a24dca08892c0a1695&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

I remember when Trump said: I am your retribution!

One thing for sure after the inauguration politics will be interesting erasing the usual boredom.

[BHU]

Trump can & will go straight to hell. Smith is going to resign before gangster Trump can fire him.

And his final report on Trump's crimes against this Country is going to tear him to pieces & it will be justified.