The president-elect’s original choices for attorney general, defence secretary and health and human services secretary have had allegations levelled at them. What are they and how have each of them responded?
Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next US attorney general, saying his selection had become “a distraction”.
Mr Gaetz was among Donald Trump’s original picks for his cabinet who faced a serious allegation of sexual impropriety.
The president-elect’s choices for defence secretary Pete Hegseth and health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr have also had accusations levelled at them in the past.
Mr Gaetz has now said his selection was “unfairly becoming a distraction” to the transition of Mr Trump’s administration into the White House.
But what had he and the others been accused of and how have they responded?
Matt Gaetz
Mr Gaetz previously faced a nearly three-year Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl, which ended in February 2023 without him facing any criminal charges.
He has always denied the allegations.
There was also a separate investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Mr Gaetz, who was a congressman up until Mr Trump announced him as his general attorney pick, at which point he stepped down.
His resignation brought the investigation to an end – two days before it had been expected to release its report into the trafficking claims.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson has pushed to prevent the release of the report’s findings, saying: “I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not the way we do things in the House.
“The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.”
But some details from that investigation have become public.
On Monday, a lawyer representing two women who testified in front of the Ethics Committee told Sky News’ US partner NBC News that Mr Gaetz paid them for sex on several occasions, including at a small, invitation-only party in Florida.
The lawyer also said one woman said she saw Mr Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend but added that she believed he didn’t realise she was a minor and that he allegedly ended their “sexual relationship” until she became a legal adult.
Mr Gaetz denies all allegations against him.
On Thursday, he wrote in a post on X after a meeting with senators that “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition”.
He added: “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general. Trump’s DOJ [Department of Justice] must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
Pete Hegseth
Mr Hegseth has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to a detailed investigative report made public on 20 November.
The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Mr Hegseth.
The woman, who helped organise the California Federation of Republican Women gathering at which Mr Hegseth spoke, told police “things got fuzzy” when she drank at the hotel bar with him and a few others.
She said after arguing with him about “how he treated women” earlier in the evening, she was inside a hotel room with Mr Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with his body so that she could not leave, according to the report.
She also told police she remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said.
