Matt Gaetz’s whirlwind week as Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee has come to a crashing halt, and he might not be able to just waltz back into Congress — even if he wanted to.
According to House precedents, a member’s resignation cannot be withdrawn unless there is a procedural problem in submitting the resignation, according to experts. That’s not the case for Gaetz: He successfully submitted his resignation from the current Congress on Nov. 13.
But there’s an open question about whether he formally resigned from the next Congress or if he would have to rerun in a special election to be able to come back next year. Gaetz’s letter to the speaker stated, “I do not intend to take the oath of office.”
One expert told NOTUS the question of whether the fuzzy language officially counts as a resignation could come down to a full House vote, citing House guidelines.
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“It would probably be a vote of the House to decide to seat the member — Gaetz — and questions about his eligibility with what ‘I do not intend to’ means,” Florida-based elections and congressional expert Patrick Rickert told NOTUS. “The House has before voted on whether members were qualified to take their seats.”
The authority to interpret Gaetz’s “intend” as a resignation or not from the next Congress — and whether to put it up for a floor vote — would likely come down to Speaker Mike Johnson. His office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The procedural questions are also overshadowed by the most likely scenario that Gaetz will end his congressional career altogether and not try to revert his resignation — particularly as Trump is staffing up. Plus, if Gaetz did decide to try and come back to Congress, it would make all but certain the Ethics Committee’s report into allegations he paid to have sex with and trafficked a minor would be made public.
When he resigned from Congress, the House Ethics Committee, which had been investigating him for two years, lost its ability to oversee allegations of his misconduct. The committee deadlocked this week on releasing the report but was set to vote again on Dec. 5.
Gaetz did not indicate his next plans in his announcement Thursday when he dropped out of consideration for attorney general. His wife, however, indicated that he may not be returning on social media.
Ginger Gaetz posted a photo on Instagram Thursday of the two of them on the Capitol steps with the caption, “The end of an era.”
Claire Heddles is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.
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