US President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will appoint Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been chosen as attorney general and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

Gaetz is a polarizing figure and a close ally of Trump, who is currently the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, received special privileges and provided favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and attempted to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.” Gaetz has denied the allegations.

US President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will appoint Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been chosen as attorney general and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

Gaetz is a polarizing figure and a close Trump ally who is currently the subject of a House Ethics Committee research in accusations that Gaetz may “engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, granted special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and attempted to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.” Gaetz has denied the allegations.

Last year, the Justice Department also investigated him in a sex trafficking investigation. The department concluded its investigation in 2023 without filing charges against Gaetz. Gaetz also denied the allegations in that case.

“Matt is a very gifted and tenacious lawyer,” Trump said in a speech after on his Truth Social social media platform. “Matt will end the armed government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans’ deeply shattered faith and trust in the Justice Department.”

Once a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who ran for president as a Democratic candidate 2020Gabbard left the Democratic Party 2022 to register as self-employed and has been a loyal Trump supporter. She was deployed to Iraq by 2004 to 2005 as a major in the Hawaii National Guard and is now a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, but she has little experience with direct intelligence. If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard would oversee the U.S. intelligence community.

Gabbard has been an outspoken critic of the US military intervention in Syria, and in 2017 she was meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a time when the US government had labeled him a war criminal for his use of chemical weapons against his own people. She has also accused the Biden administration of failing to prevent war in Ukraine on X as Russia launched its full-scale invasion: “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns about Ukraine joining NATO, which would mean U.S. and NATO forces stationed directly on Russia’s border located.” She co-wrote in June 2022 a piece ahead Foreign policy arguing that Ukraine had no realistic chances of defeating Russia and that the United States should push for a settlement to end the war.

Trump praised Gabbard for her “fearless spirit” in a post on Truth Social announcing her nomination for the intelligence role. “Tulsi will make us all proud!”