WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who Donald Trump wants to be the next attorney general of the United States, has spread lies about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and championed the cause of Jan. 6 defendants whose cases he would oversee if confirmed to the job.
Trump’s nomination of Gaetz, the recent target of a federal sex trafficking probe that ended without charges, has sent shockwaves through Congress and through the Justice Department, a law enforcement institution that Gaetz himself has repeatedly targeted, including with false claims.
“Many attorneys and staff are struggling to find the right emotional response to the reality that’s unfolding before us,” said one law enforcement source close to the Jan. 6 investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the potential head of their department.
If nominated and confirmed as attorney general, Gaetz would oversee the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 attack and could order federal prosecutors to move to dismiss ongoing cases, seek low or no prison sentences for Jan. 6 rioters, stop further arrests and even shut down DOJ’s Capitol Siege Section. That unit has brought forward more than 1,500 cases in the “most wide-ranging investigation” in the history of the Justice Department. Prosecutors have secured the convictions of more than 1,100 people in connection to the attack, more than 600 of whom have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days in federal prison to 22 years in one case.
Hundreds of rioters still have not been arrested. NBC News reported last week ahead of the Gaetz announcement that the Justice Department was planning to focus on arresting the “most egregious” Jan. 6 rioters — meaning those who assaulted officers — before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Trump has said he would “absolutely” pardon some, if not all, of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, labeling them “warriors,” “unbelievable patriots,” political prisoners and “hostages.” His transition team on Thursday told NBC News that Trump “will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
Trump’s selection of Gaetz, one of the most prominent critics of the federal investigation into the attack, suggests he’ll seek a dramatic overhaul of the probe. Neither the Trump transition team nor Gaetz responded to a request for comment for this story.
Nicole Reffitt, a supporter of the Capitol defendants, told NBC News she is pleased with the Gaetz pick. Her husband, Guy Reffitt, was an armed Jan. 6 participant who became the first Capitol rioter to go to trial and is serving more than seven years in federal prison, in part because he was armed.
“Trump needs to fix what is already in shambles,” Nicole Reffitt said. “He first needs a wrecking ball to break through the shell of corruption. That wrecking ball is Attorney General Matt Gaetz.”
Derrick Evans, a Jan. 6 rioter who previously ran for office, gave Gaetz a shoutout in a fundraising email on Friday.
“We need a fighter in leadership, and that’s why I’m backing Matt Gaetz for Attorney General,” Evans wrote. “I know him — he’s proven, tested, and he’s one of us.”
Misinformation and rallies
From early on in the investigation, Gaetz spread misinformation about the attack while aligning himself with Trump-supporting Jan. 6 rioters who were held in pretrial custody.
On Jan. 6, 2021, he falsely claimed on the House floor that “some of the people who breached the Capitol” were not Trump supporters, but members of antifa, citing a report from a right-wing newspaper that was later corrected. During that session, he joined 146 other Republicans in voting to overturn the results of the 2020 election after the attack. Gaetz also later implied that he had spoken with Trump during the Capitol breach.
Six months later, Gaetz and other far-right members of Congress held a news conference outside of the Justice Department on the treatment of Jan. 6 detainees, and said alleged Capitol rioters were being “harassed” and “targeted” by law enforcement. That December, he posted that the House Jan. 6 committee, which was formed to investigate the attack, was “a bigger threat to America than the J6 rioters.”
Gaetz has repeatedly hosted Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House official who has spread conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack, on his podcast. One of Gaetz’s podcasts featuring Beattie was titled “Fedsurrection,” a nickname generated by far-right extremists who have portrayed the Capitol attack as an inside job, without evidence. In another episode with Beattie in October 2021, Gaetz said Jan. 6 “has been used by the most powerful forces in America to smear and target a political movement that threatens them.”
In 2019, Gaetz hired Beattie as a senior adviser after he was fired by the Trump administration for attending a conference with white nationalists. This January, Gaetz shared a story from Beattie’s website about the pipe bombs left outside the RNC and DNC on the eve of the Capitol attack, suggesting — without evidence — there was a federal “cover up.” Gaetz labeled it a “MUST READ.”
Gaetz has also spread a right-wing conspiracy theory about Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who was baselessly accused of being a federal operative who played a role in the Jan. 6 attack. Epps was charged in 2023 with misdemeanors and sentenced to probation, with the judge in his case noting: “More than 700 people have been sentenced in this courthouse for their role in January 6th. Not one is a member of Antifa or a FBI agent.”
On the first anniversary of Jan. 6, Gaetz held another news conference to “expose the truth” about the attack. Later in 2022, Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., toured what his congressional website called “the area of the Capitol Complex where alleged federal informant Ray Epps and his team first breached fencing.”
Gaetz later posted a screenshot of a television chyron calling the Epps conspiracy theory “baseless,” writing: “Saving this for when the full extent of the federal government’s role in J6 is exposed.”
In 2023, Gaetz attended a rally held for Jan. 6 rioters outside of the Washington, D.C., jail where a limited number of Jan. 6 rioters have been held pretrial. In most of those cases, a judge found overwhelming evidence that they committed violence against law enforcement, or that they fled from authorities.
During that rally, which was livestreamed, Gaetz spoke directly to a Capitol detainee over a phone held up for him by Tami Perryman, another supporter of Jan. 6 defendants whose boyfriend was among those being held and has since been sentenced.
“I just wanted to say how sorry I am that there are any Americans who are having to endure this two-tiered justice system,” Gaetz told one of the Jan. 6 defendants in the jail, who was not identified by his full name in the clip posted by Gaetz’s team. “I want you to spread the word in there that there are a group of us who know that we have to do more and that we have not done enough.”
That unknown Jan. 6 defendant called Gaetz “one of the few good ones” in Congress. “When you speak, you’re saying what we’re thinking when it comes to, like, holding these people accountable,” he told Gaetz.
Just this year, Gaetz introduced a bill aimed at giving Jan. 6 rioters more leverage in resentencing hearings, as well as a nonbinding resolution declaring the House does not believe Trump engaged in insurrection. Neither have gotten votes this Congress.
Many could still face charges
With two months left before Trump takes office, the FBI continues to make new arrests and DOJ has continued to prosecute them in court.
Online “sedition hunters,” who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of Capitol rioters, told NBC News they have identified and submitted evidence to the bureau of more than 70 individuals who are currently featured on the FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage and labeled as wanted for assault on a federal officer or for assault on media, both felonies.
In the past three days, the FBI has arrested two individuals charged with assaulting police officers.
Sources close to the Capitol siege investigation warned NBC News back in 2022 that the Justice Department lacked the “manpower” to get the remaining cases over the finish line before the statute of limitations expires in 2026.
That timeline is now shorter. Hundreds of additional rioters will likely never be charged, but online sleuths are hoping that violent rioters who have already been identified can be arrested before Trump takes office, creating a public record that will stand no matter who’s running the Justice Department.
“Not quite there, but it’s still salvageable!” said one sleuth who has aided the FBI investigation.
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