Matt Gaetz In Talks To Join Democratic Megadonor’s Law Firm

Matt Gaetz may be taking on a second job.

Prominent Florida megadonor John Morgan is actively in talks with the former Republican lawmaker about joining his firm, Morgan & Morgan, he told POLITICO in an extensive interview. The job would be in addition to the role Gaetz announced on Tuesday that he's joining the conservative One America News Network as a prime-time host beginning in January.

Morgan praised Gaetz, who recently withdrew from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general, for his positions on marijuana legalization, property insurance and processed foods.

“A lot of the things that my politics are, Matt Gaetz’s are,” said Morgan, who has given heavily to Democratic candidates but is registered in Florida as a no-party affiliated voter.

Morgan said that he could see Gaetz being helpful in a recent lawsuit his firm filed that alleges major food companies specifically engineered their products to be addictive and then marketed them to kids, contributing to chronic illness.

In a text exchange, Gaetz acknowledged that he and Morgan had “talked about collaborating professionally” and said he was grateful for their friendship.

“I’ve known John Morgan for more than a decade,” he said. “I’ve taken a lot of advice from him on matters of law, policy and politics. I have great respect for how he stands to the powerful for his clients — and he wins.”

A key moment in the relationship between Gaetz and Morgan came shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis won his first election in 2018. DeSantis stepped into a running legal battle over medical marijuana, where Morgan had sued the state because it was not allowing the use of smokable marijuana for patients. The three men held a press conference in January 2019 where the newly elected governor called on legislators to lift the ban on smokable marijuana — which they did shortly afterwards.

Morgan would later tell POLITICO that the press conference was “initiated” by Gaetz.

Morgan has been one of Florida’s most prominent political players for years and helped bankroll the initiatives that legalized medical marijuana and one that raised Florida’s minimum wage. He has long held ties to other politicians and hired then-Gov. Charlie Crist after he left office in early 2011. Morgan himself has teased a run for office in the past and is known nationally for his law firm’s advertisements being plastered on billboards and on public transportation.

The job at Morgan & Morgan would be a high-profile landing for Gaetz, who resigned from the House after he dropped out of the process to be Trump's attorney general, a move that also came just before the House Ethics Committee planned to meet regarding a probe into allegations against him regarding illegal drug use and sex with a 17-year-old.

Gaetz has denied the allegations, and a Department of Justice investigation into him resulted in no charges. Yet the accusations quickly dogged his confirmation process, and Gaetz left public service altogether.

The former member of Congress has also been seen as a potential Republican candidate for governor in 2026, a contest that has been increasingly fluid as Trump tapped numerous Floridians to hold jobs in his administration. Gaetz has already tapped into a potential campaign theme by siding with critics — like Morgan — that the GOP-controlled Legislature kowtowed to the property insurance industry when it passed a measure DeSantis signed into law that makes it much harder to sue insurers.

Gaetz earned his law degree from William & Mary and was part of a law firm with Larry Keefe when he was still in the Florida Legislature. Keefe, a longtime trial attorney, would later become a U.S. attorney appointed by Trump before working for DeSantis as his “public safety czar.”

Morgan said the details of the potential job are still under discussion and that he was waiting until the news about Gaetz’s new TV spot settled down. He said that his firm hired “finders, minders and grinders” and that he saw Gaetz as a potential “finder-minder” who he saw at the “36,000-foot” level versus “in the trenches.”

As an example, he cited the way that his firm collaborated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who is now Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary — to host an educational seminar in East Palestine, Ohio, following a train derailment that cast hazardous materials into the town.

“I know he’s controversial,” Morgan said of Gaetz, “but I’m fucking controversial.”