Anxiety and dismay inside the Justice Department after Trump taps Gaetz as attorney general(Too many sissies in DOJ gotta get them out)

Sat, November 16, 20241/2

Real Title: Fear and Loathing in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's choice of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general has many Justice Department employees reeling, worried not only about their own jobs but the future of the agency that the Trump loyalist has railed against.

The president-elect's pick of the Florida Republican sent a shock throughout the Cabinet department, considering Gaetz's lack of experience in law enforcement and the fact that he was once the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation. The names of well-regarded veteran lawyers had circulated as possible contenders for the job, but Gaetz's selection was broadly interpreted as an indication of the premium that Trump places on personal loyalty and Trump's desire to have a disruptor lead a department that for years investigated and ultimately indicted him.

Career lawyers at the department interviewed by The Associated Press, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to share their feelings publicly, described a widespread sense of being stunned by the nomination — even outrage. They spoke of being flooded with calls and messages from colleagues as soon as the news broke.

Some inside the department were not immediately sure that Gaetz, who graduated law school in 2007 but has spent most of his career as a lawmaker, including in Congress, was even a lawyer. Andsome are already looking for new jobs as concerns grow over Gaetz’s rhetoric about going after the “deep state."

Gaetz has claimed the department is “corrupt and highly political,” and strongly criticized the federal prosecutions of Trump and the Jan. 6 rioters. He also has suggested abolishing two agencies he would oversee as attorney general, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He would arrive in the job without the legal experience of his predecessors, including the current attorney general, Merrick Garland, who as a high-ranking Justice Department official supervised the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case before becoming a federal appeals court judge.

==Trump described Gaetz as the right person= to "root out the systemic corruption" within the agency, end “weaponized” government and “restore Americans' badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department," Trump has yet to announce a similar leadership change at the FBI, though one may be coming given his long-running criticism of the director, Christopher Wray. (Just wait, the wailing will be louder if its Kash Patel)

“I think he was picked to shake the whole thing and to throw a grenade into DOJ," said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama."He's a flamethrower and that's what Trump wants.”Fishwick said Justice Department lawyers he has been in touch with are “concerned about what this is going to mean for them individually.”

But one Justice Department lawyer was less bothered by the change, saying a leadership shakeup could be a welcome reset given the “mistrust from both the left and the right” that the attorney said wasjustified after a tumultuous stretch of politically charged investigations that have divided public opinion and put federal law enforcement on the defensive...

More recently, a special counsel was named to investigate President Joe Biden's handling of classified information, an inquiry that closed without charges, while a separate special counsel investigation into Trump's retention of top secret documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election produced federal indictments against Trump that now are in line to be erased.

It is unclear whether Gaetz has enough Republican support in the Senate to be confirmed.

Gaetz faces continued scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation that ended without criminal charges. (Gossip! And lies.)

Justice Department employees were alreadypreparing for major shakeup to the agency's agenda around civil rights and others mattersbefore Trump settled on Gaetz to be the nation's top federal law enforcement officer…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anxiety-dismay-inside-justice-department-131504611.html

>>22009220

2/2

Trump has been known to take a keen interest in the FBI and Justice Department, expecting loyalty from leaders and calling for specific actions. He has railed against what he views as a politically motivated justice system over the cases brought against him by a special counsel. As a candidate, he repeatedly suggested that he would seek revenge on his perceived enemies for his prosecution. (He never said revenge, he said Retribution or Justice)

Some career department lawyers leave for the private sector every time there is a new administration, but employees say there could be a dramatic departure of staff in the coming months.

“The department runs on career employees, people who are apolitical in work, and politics aside, if all of these people are so dismayed at the selection of the attorney general that they leave, who will carry out the functions of the department?” said one Justice Department lawyer, who is planning to leave the government. KEK

Chris Mattei, a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut who prosecuted ex-Gov. John Rowland and later ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general as a Democrat, said he has heard a “significant level of concern” about Gaetz over the criminal investigation that Gaetz faced, the House ethics review, a potentially insufficient examination of his background and the prospect that the department could be led by “somebody who is highly compromised” and also may have a “personal vendetta" against it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anxiety-dismay-inside-justice-department-131504611.html

Pete Hegseth says he was blackmailed into paying off rape accuser during #MeToo movement: lawyer 1/2

By Ryan King

Nov. 17, 2024, 2:44 p.m. ET

President-elect DonaldTrump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, says he was blackmailed during the #MeToo movementand paid off an accuser to keep her silent, his attorney Timothy Parlatore tells The Post.

Hegseth, who worked as a Fox News host until Trump picked him for his cabinet, paid an undisclosed amount to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, an encounter which he maintains was consensual, his lawyer confirmed.

“Basically, he was totally innocent. He did nothing wrong here,” Parlatore said. “We went through a mediation and ultimately settled for far less than what she wanted. And that should have completely buried it.”

Last week, the Trump transition team received a memo from a friend of the accuser who detailed the accusations against Trump’s surprise pick to lead the Department of Defense, the Washington Post reported.

The alleged incident took place on Oct. 7, 2017, in Monterey, California, and involved an unidentified staffer at a conservative group who accused Hegseth, now 44, of raping her in his hotel room after a boozy night at the bar. She was in her 30s at the time.

Hegseth had been staying at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa at the time after delivering an address at the California Federation of Republican Women conference.

Parlatore, who declined to divulge the amount paid or the identity of the woman, claimed she was sober and pursued Hegseth.

“He had way too many drinks, and according to video surveillance and eyewitness testimony, this woman who was sober took advantage of him, and she was the aggressor,” he said.

“She took him by the arm and she led him up to his room.”

But the memo of the incident sent to the transition team, which The Post has not independently obtained, alleged that she was responsible for ensuring that Hegseth made it back to his room and to the airport the next day, according to the Washington Post.

She was staying in the hotel with her husband and children at the time. After receiving texts from two women at the bar who claimed “Hegseth was getting pushy about his interest in taking them upstairs to his room,” she decided to intervene, per the memo.

The accuser “had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack,” according to the memo.

A friend of the accuser said she had seen her at events over the past 15 years but had “never known her to be irresponsible, drunk, or ever of questionable character.”

Parlatore alleged that the accuser was simply trying to save face with her husband.

“She woke up to a whole bunch of texts from herhusband saying, ‘Why didn’t you come back to our room?’ Afterward, she had to come back and lie,” he added, citing a police report that is not publicly available.

https://nypost.com/2024/11/17/us-news/pete-hegseth-says-he-was-blackmailed-into-paying-off-rape-accuser/

>>22009334

2/2

Days after the encounter, the accuser filed a complaint to the police, who investigated the situation andultimately, the local district attorney declined to pursue charges.

Two years later, in 2020, the accuser threatened to pursue Hegseth in court, which resulted in his settlement payment to her in exchange for the woman signing a non-disclosure agreement.

“If she were to come out and start repeating these false claims, or if this in any way derails the confirmation, then, yeah, we will probably be following a pretty massive lawsuit against her for defamation and civil and extortion,” Parlatore said.

Hegseth, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is widely seen as an unconventional choice to take charge at the Pentagon given his lack of experience managing a large organization.

Trump, 78,chose Hegseth, who has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, with the intention of dramatically shaking up the Pentagon, and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion practices from America’s armed forces.

So far the president-elect is sticking with his DOD nominee amid the accusations, which caught his transition team by surprise.

“President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed.We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again.”

The Post was unable to identify the accuser to reach out for her version of events.

https://nypost.com/2024/11/17/us-news/pete-hegseth-says-he-was-blackmailed-into-paying-off-rape-accuser/

>>22009337

I think everyone in the media should be exposed for their personal crimes. Starting with Joe and Mika. Why did Joe resign from congress the day or weeks after, when he assistant was murdered?

>>22009357

It's not, it was dismissed by the police.

Rick Scott

@SenRickScott

Yes, there will be.

Eric Daugherty

@EricLDaugh

BREAKING: Senator Mitch McConnell has just sent a message to President-elect Trump regarding his Cabinet picks - New Yorker

MCCONNELL: "There will be no recess appointments

9:09 PM · Nov 17, 2024

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