Ethics probe
Gaetz, 42, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and won reelection recently, but he resigned as a congressman shortly after Trump picked him to be attorney general.
“Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do,” Trump said in response to his withdrawal.
The ethics probe into Gaetz, a deeply polarizing Florida congressman, was effectively ended after he resigned from the House.
As a staunch Trump ally, Gaetz — if appointed as attorney general — could have dropped multiple criminal cases against the former president.
Gaetz is known as a disruptor who earned the enmity of some House colleagues, including by engineering the ouster of fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker last year.
The latest transition upheaval came as new lurid details emerged about Defense nominee Hegseth.
He was investigated for sexual assault after a complaint from an unnamed woman at a 2017 conference in California.
The New York Times reported details from the police investigation, which was closed without Hegseth being charged.
The married woman told officers that she suffered from memory loss and thought her drink might have been spiked, while Hegseth said the encounter was consensual.