Donald Trump’s selection for the nation’s next top law enforcement official is expected to execute the “retribution” and “vengeance” he has promised against his political enemies.
Now-former congressman Matt Gaetz — a Trump loyalist who spearheaded legal threats among House Republicans against the prosecutors and judges overseeing the criminal investigations against the former president — has withdrawn his name from consideration one week after Trump picked him for attorney general.
A list of names in consideration for the role that circulated in the weeks leading up to Election Day did not include Gaetz, whose selection surprised members of Congress, where he remains under investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct.
The job now appears up for grabs.
Trump’s next attorney general — among the most critical roles in his administration — is widely expected to defy the Justice Department’s independence and work closely with the White House to protect the president-elect’s agenda.
A planning document titled “Transition Planning: Legal Principles” that was crafted by Trump’s top campaign advisers offered several potential picks for the job.
The list includes Jeffrey Clark, who is among the president-elect’s criminally charged co-defendants in a sprawling election inference case in Georgia and an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal prosecution of the former president for his efforts to overturn election results.
Clark, who previously served as assistant attorney general in Trump’s first administration, also worked at a right-wing think tank founded by Russell Vought, among the authors of Project 2025 and Trump’s pick for the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The transition document also names District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed Trump’s federal criminal case involving his possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Cannon was nominated to the judiciary in 2020.
Former White House lawyer Mark Paoletta also appears on the list.
Paoletta, who represented Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni during the House select committee investigation into January 6, has previously said it is the “constitutional duty” of the Department of Justice to implement Trump’s agenda.
The former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget in Trump’s first term has previously demanded Justice Department lawyers “be fully committed to implementing President Trump’s policies or they should leave or be fired.”
The list also includes Trump’s criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche, who ultimately was nominated for deputy attorney general, the second-highest role at the Justice Department. Emil Bove, who along with Blanche defended Trump during the still-active hush money trial, was also nominated as principal deputy attorney general.
Trump does not necessarily need to immediately fill the power vacuum for the top job. His two well-regarded attorneys — who have thus far kept him out of having to face any consequences for his criminal convictions — could fill acting roles at the top of the Justice Department while waiting for the nomination and confirmation of the next attorney general.
Donald Trump Jr and Steve Bannon, meanwhile, have pushed for Trump’s legal ally Mike Davis as attorney general. Davis has recently threatened New York Attorney General Letitia James (“we will put your fat a** in prison”) and has vowed a “reign of terror” during the incoming administration.
Matthew Whitaker was also considered a top contender for the role; Trump ultimately picked him for NATO ambassador.
The former acting attorney general in Trump’s first administration has said that judges need to have a “biblical view of justice” and questioned the judgment of a secular judiciary. He also is on the board of America First Legal and chairs America First Policy Institute, groups that drafted policy documents for Trump’s administration while joining legal challenges against President Joe Biden.
Media outlets and right-wing personalities have also offered up the names of several state attorneys general who have vigorously defended the former president.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has launched dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration, including litigation against the president’s student loan debt relief plans and Title IX changes.
He has also tried to inject himself in Trump’s criminal cases by demanding that judges lift gag orders against the former president. He testified in front of members of Congress about Trump’s criminal cases and called on the Justice Department to turn over files related to the special counsel’s investigations.
Earlier this year, Trump himself said that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would make a good candidate for attorney general. Paxton joined state attorneys general who launched a failed attempt to challenge Trump’s loss in four battleground states in 2020, and he spoke at the rally in Washington DC before a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.
Paxton also has cast himself as a victim of political persecution in a way that Trump has characterized the mountain of cases against him. Last year, Paxton was impeached, then acquitted, on allegations that he abused his power in office, and in March, prosecutors agreed to drop three felony securities fraud charges against him.
Senator Mike Lee, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and a former federal prosecutor, has been floated among his GOP colleagues for next attorney general.
The adversarial Republican from Utah is among Trump’s biggest cheerleaders in the upper chamber of Congress, and already has the support of some of his colleagues who could hear him out during confirmation hearings.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is also the state’s former solicitor general, has also been floated as a possible contender.