In the wake of Donald Trump’s recent election victory, the focus is on his Cabinet nominations, particularly the controversial choice of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. Gaetz, previously a Congressman, is embroiled in a legal controversy involving allegations of sex trafficking and financial impropriety. The House Ethics Committee, after a prolonged investigation, was set to release a potentially damaging report about Gaetz’s actions, adding to the scrutiny surrounding his nomination.

Matt Gaetz’s professional background lies in law and politics, following in his father’s political footsteps. Gaetz has carved out a reputation as a staunch defender of Donald Trump, leveraging his position in Congress to support the former President through various controversies. Despite lacking extensive legal experience, Gaetz was poised to receive a substantial salary increase if confirmed as Attorney General, even as financial disclosures revealed a moderate personal fortune bolstered by family wealth.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. contentious [kənˈtɛnʃəs] - (adjective) - Causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial. - Synonyms: (controversial, disputable, debatable)

And perhaps his most contentious pick to date has been his nomination for Attorney General, former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

2. embattled [ɪmˈbætəld] - (adjective) - Involved in or surrounded by problems or conflict. - Synonyms: (besieged, beleaguered, assailed)

Matt Gaetz has been under investigation for years. He's been in the legal Spotlight.

3. impropriety [ˌɪmprəˈpraɪəti] - (noun) - A failure to show expected standards of honesty or modesty; inappropriate behavior. - Synonyms: (misconduct, wrongdoing, transgression)

They were investigating him for a whole range of things ranging from financial impropriety to showing other members of the House sexually explicit videos.

4. fierce [fɪərs] - (adjective) - Having or displaying an intense or ferocious aggressiveness. - Synonyms: (intense, vehement, aggressive)

He immediately cast himself as one of Donald Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress.

5. recess appointment [rɪˈsɛs əˈpɔɪntmənt] - (noun) - A presidential appointment made without Senate confirmation while the Senate is in recess. - Synonyms: (interim appointment, temporary appointment)

But if he is confirmed as Attorney general or if he's appointed in a recess appointment, as Donald Trump has said he would do, if the Senate moves to reject some of his nominees, he would be making over $200,000

6. patriarch [ˈpeɪtriˌɑrk] - (noun) - The male head of a family or tribe. - Synonyms: (leader, elder, head)

Talk about the patriarch of the Gates family. Who is Don Gates?

7. expansive [ɪkˈspænsɪv] - (adjective) - Covering a wide area in terms of space or scope; extensive. - Synonyms: (extensive, wide-ranging, comprehensive)

To your point, he does have an expansive real estate portfolio.

8. firebrand [ˈfaɪərˌbrænd] - (noun) - A person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and taking radical action. - Synonyms: (agitator, radical, zealot)

Matt Gaetz, during his time in Congress was best known as a right-wing firebrand.

9. sufficiently [səˈfɪʃəntli] - (adverb) - To an adequate degree; enough. - Synonyms: (adequately, suitably, appropriately)

He's not afraid in recent years to have gone after Republican leadership that he views as insufficiently loyal to Trump.

10. oust [aʊst] - (verb) - To drive out or expel from a position or place. - Synonyms: (expel, remove, displace)

Most famously, he helped oust Kevin McCarthy, that was the former speaker of the House in 2023.

Inside The Family Fortune Of Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump's Controversial Attorney General Pick

Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my Forbes colleague, money and politics reporter Kyle Con Mullins. Kyle, thanks so much for coming back on. Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.

Since Donald Trump won the election two weeks ago, he has wasted absolutely no time nominating members for his Cabinet. And perhaps his most contentious pick to date has been his nomination for Attorney General, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned just hours after Trump made the announcement. So Gaetz is currently embroiled in a controversy. To start off the conversation, what is that controversy? Walk us through it.

Oh, boy. Matt Gaetz has been under investigation for years. He's been in the legal Spotlight. First, the DOJ, which began investigating him in 2020 for alleged sex trafficking. That investigation closed in 2023 with no charges filed. As far as we can tell, though, the DOJ didn't say why they closed that investigation. Still, the House Ethics Committee, which is a committee that oversees the conduct of House members, picked up that investigation shortly after the DOJ opened it.

And after the DOJ closed their investigation, the House Ethics Committee investigation ramped up considerably. They have said that they were investigating him for a whole range of things ranging from financial impropriety to showing other members of the House sexually explicit videos to the aforementioned sex trafficking and other sexual misconduct offenses. And as that, as far as we know, that committee has mostly finished its work. It was apparently scheduled to release a report on its findings last Friday.

That report has been reported to be very highly damaging to Gaetz. We don't know what it says. However, Gaetz resigned from the House, like you said, just hours after Trump appointed him as an Attorney General nominee. And so it looked for a minute like that might squash the report. However, now we're hearing that the Ethics Committee may vote to release the report anyway. We're not 100% sure what's going to proceed there.

And then just in the past couple of days and hours, we have reports coming out that this House committee received testimony that Gaetz had had sex with a minor and had paid for sex with prostitutes. So, again, a lot of things to unpack here. A lot of really disturbing allegations, and we will just have to see where things go from here. I imagine that the senators on the committee that will be handling this, I believe that's a judiciary committee, will want to know everything they can before they cast their votes.

A lot of really serious allegations dripping out. Gaetz has denied them, but now he's nominated to be head of the DOJ. So I Want the backstory on Matt Gaetz? Talk to us about his career before he was introduced on the national stage. He was. He practiced law and was in state politics. Tell us about that.

Yeah, absolutely. So Matt Gaetz, he went to the University of Florida for college, then William and Mary Law School. For law school, he entered private practice and was there for a couple of years working at a law firm in North Florida. But he followed his dad into politics, and we'll talk a little bit more about his dad later.

But Gaetz ran for a state House seat. He won a seat in 2010. He was there for a couple of years. Then he ran for Congress in 2016. He won a seat in Congress that's the same year, came in along with Donald Trump in 2017, and immediately cast himself as one of Donald Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress.

And so that has really been his career up to this point. And like you mentioned, he resigned just, just recently from his current seat and was nominated to be Attorney General. Notably, not a ton of actual legal experience there. I think he would be, of recent attorneys general, he would be one of the least experienced in terms of actual practicing law.

Kyle, whenever you and I talk, we always talk about the numbers. We always talk about the money in politics. So how much was Matt Gaetz making in his role in Congress before he resigned just last week? And let's say he is confirmed as Attorney General. How big of a pay bump will that be?

So as a member of the House of Representatives, he was making $174,000 a year. That's the same for everyone except for a couple members of leadership in both the House and Senate. But if he is confirmed as Attorney General or if he's appointed in a recess appointment, as Donald Trump has said he would do, if the Senate moves to reject some of his nominees, he would be making over $200,000. That's the salary of a captain secretary. So he will get a raise.

And so what else did he find on his federal financial disclosure? Yeah, so we dug through some of his recent financial disclosures. He has a couple hundred thousand dollars of various assets. We got a little bit of real estate, a little bit of just regular investments. His wife also has a couple hundred thousand dollars of those assets. If you put them together, they might be worth over a million dollars, but we're not 100% sure.

All these things are declared in ranges, and so he could be well under a million as well. His wife also declares a salary of $157,000 not that far behind. She works at K, the global accounting firm. So that is what we see based on his financial disclosures that we have.

You and I have talked about millionaire politicians, billionaire politicians, but you're reporting that Matt Gaetz probably doesn't have an issue with money because his father has a fortune. Don Gates. Talk about the patriarch of the Gates family. Who is Don Gates?

Don Gates is a businessman who is best known for. After he made his money, he went into state politics. He was a state senator for 10 years, including two years as the state Senate president. That was from 2006 to 2016. He was in the state Senate.

And he actually, after he was term limited out, he's now back. And he just won another term in the state Senate, back to his old seat. And Forbes is estimating that his net worth is around $35 million. So how did he make that fortune before entering politics?

He made his money. He founded a hospice company in 1978 and sold it in the early 2000s for a little over $400 million. Now, he wasn't the only owner of that company. There were plenty of other shareholders. But like you said, he's worth about $35 million today.

And that's because he took his proceeds from that sale. And he did two things. He put a bunch of it into the market. He's got plenty of investments, lots of different stocks and bonds and other investments. And then he also has built a pretty portfolio. Most of it is concentrated in North Florida, but you've got a couple properties scattered in Wisconsin and New York as well.

To your point, he does have an expansive real estate portfolio. So talk to us about these properties. How much are they worth? Where are they? What does that look like?

So the vast majority of these properties are in the panhandle of Florida, North Florida. And there's. I think that the one that is best known perhaps, is the house from the Truman Show. This is the house that Jim Carrey's character lived in the movie that is in Seaside, Florida.

And Matt Gaetz actually grew up in that house, which is kind of an odd, you know, kind of an interesting piece of his background, of his lore. But beyond that, he owns, like I said, several other big houses in North Florida. He owns properties that he rents out as well. He has lots of just empty plots of land in Florida that presumably he's hoping to develop at some point. This is all Don Gates. The vast majority of the stuff is held either directly by Don or by companies that he owns.

And then Matt Gaetz followed his father into real estate. So how successful were his ventures did. Matt Gaetz also started buying up some properties when he was a lawyer and when he was in the State House. However, it doesn't seem like he made an enormous amount. He was worth about $400,000 and most of that was real estate in his final disclosure as a member of the State House.

That was in 2015. But he sold a lot of that land off in 2016 when he won his seat for Congress and actually to fund his race to run for Congress. So he didn't make an enormous amount of money from that. And his spokesperson last time we reported on this told us that he sold those properties for their assessed value to his father. They confirmed that it was sold to a company that is owned by his dad.

Matt Gaetz, during his time in Congress was best known as a right wing firebrand. Talk to us a little more about what type of congressman he was and do we have any indication of if he is confirmed, what type of attorney general he will be?

Yeah, he has really pitched himself here as the biggest, brashest Trump defender out there. I would say. Matt Gaetz is one of the most pro Trump members of the House, if not the most pro Trump member of the House, or he was until he resigned very recently.

And Gaetz, he's cut a very, very conservative figure and he's not afraid in recent years to have gone after Republican leadership that he views as insufficiently loyal to Trump. Insufficient, sufficiently conservative. So in addition to defending Trump against, you know, the two, both of his impeachment, both of the impeachment efforts against him against the Mueller investigation, Gaetz in recent years has really stuck it to Republican leadership.

Most famously, he helped oust Kevin McCarthy, that was the former speaker of the House in 2023. He led that effort and is still well known for it. And there is still very bad blood between him and Republican leadership for doing so.

Well, Kyle, I appreciate your reporting per usual. Thank you so much for joining me. Always great. Thanks for having me.

POLITICS, DONALD TRUMP, MATT GAETZ, LEADERSHIP, ECONOMICS, CONTROVERSY, FORBES