Trump Told ABC’s Reince Priebus His Matt Gaetz Pick is for Real: ‘A Big Middle Finger to the DOJ’

Reince Priebus told ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump did not nominate Matt Gaetz for Attorney General as part of an elaborate plan.

Priebus said Trump conveyed to him personally that he wanted the former congressman to head a Justice department he felt had targeted him after he left the White House.

On ABC’s This Week Sunday, Raddatz and a panel discussed Trump’s more controversial cabinet nominees – including Gaetz, who resigned from the House a day after Trump tapped him for AG.

Priebus dispelled any speculation the announcement was a multi-dimensional chess move in order to get a less controversial DOJ candidate confirmed by the Senate.

Raddatz asked, “Reince, you told me you talked to Donald Trump just yesterday about some of these more controversial nominees. Is he going to double down, is he backing off at all?” Priebus replied:

No. I mean, I – he made it very clear to me that the Matt Gaetz pick is not three-dimensional chess to help another nominee get through. That this was what he wanted to have happen. And when Republicans voted in impeachment against Donald Trump, he had a list of who those people were. And almost all of them in the House are gone.

A couple of quick things, though. Number one, you have to remember Donald Trump spent the last couple of years going in and out of courtrooms, getting Mar-a-Lago raided. I mean, part of the reason why the first lady, Melania Trump, didn’t go meet with Jill Biden was, hey, you raided, you know, my bedroom. I mean, you came – you want me to have tea with you? So, he – he feels like he has gone to hell and back ten times. So, this is also a big middle finger to the DOJ and the FBI.

Priebus concluded, “The Gaetz play and all these other nominees come after four years of being through the gauntlet.”

Watch above via ABC News.