Typically, appointees for the job of U.S. attorney general have had long careers working in law and law enforcement. But that’s not the case for Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump’s new attorney general.

Aside from being the subject of a recent criminal investigation himself, Gaetz has limited familiarity with the workings of the federal Justice Department — and conspicuously little experience actually using his law degree.

In announcing Gaetz as his pick to lead the DOJ, Trump praised him as a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.” But Gaetz barely ever practiced law before going into politics, having followed his father into the Florida state legislature less than three years after passing the bar. Gaetz spent that time not as a prosecutor, but as a junior associate at a small litigation firm near where he grew up.

This kind of resume may seem disqualifying for someone vying to run the DOJ, and it may doom Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed — if his unresolved ethics scandal and general unpopularity among the Republican ranks don’t preclude him outright. But after burning through attorneys general in his first administration, Trump just wants a loyalist in the position, even if that means one whose last court appearance was more than a decade ago.

© The Intercept