Former Rep. Matt Gaetz said Thursday that he is withdrawing from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, amid persistent allegations he had sex with a minor and paid women for sex.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after Mr. Gaetz met with Republican senators at the Capitol to lobby for his confirmation. In a post on X, Mr. Gaetz said he “had excellent meetings with Senators,” but his nomination was overshadowing Mr. Trump’s agenda.

“While the momentum was strong, it was clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction other than the critical work for the Trump/Vance transition,” Mr. Gaetz wrote on X. “There is not time to waste on a needless protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general.”

Mr. Trump had announced his intention to nominate Mr. Gaetz only eight days ago, in the belief that he would shake up the Justice Department by purging it of any partisan prosecutors.

Mr. Gaetz, 42, said he remains “fully committed” to ensuring Mr. Trump’s success and was “honored” to have been considered to lead the Justice Department.

In a statement, Mr. Trump confirmed that Mr. Gaetz had taken his name out of consideration.

“He was doing very well, but at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Gaetz resigned from Congress on Nov. 13, just hours after Mr. Trump nominated him to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, despite already being the subject of a Justice Department sex trafficking probe.

The probe ended last year without prosecutors bringing charges against him. Mr. Gaetz had long denied wrongdoing, insisting the allegations were part of a “deep state” plot to torpedo him because he was one of Mr. Trump’s strongest advocates on the Hill.

Mr. Gaetz was not charged with a crime. Still, he was the subject of a long-running House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of illicit drug use, sexual misconduct, improperly accepting gifts and other transgressions. That probe ended when Mr. Gaetz resigned from Congress.

House investigators interviewed more than a dozen witnesses and issued 25 subpoenas, the committee said in a statement.

Although he resigned from the current Congress, Mr. Gaetz won reelection to his seat in the upcoming Congress, which will convene in January. It is unclear if Mr. Gaetz will return to Congress in the new session, or what that means for the House Ethics probe.

It was revealed earlier this week that two women told the House Ethics Committee that Mr. Gaetz paid them for sex multiple times and one of them witnessed him having sex with a 17-year-old against a game table during a July 2017 party. The women also told House investigators that Mr. Gaetz asked them about “party favors’ and “vitamins” at upcoming parties via text message, which they understood to be code for drugs.

The information was unveiled by Orlando-based attorney Joel Leppard, who is representing the two witnesses.

Mr. Gaetz allegedly paid the two women more than $10,000 in Venmo payments, according to transactions by ABC News.

Just as Mr. Gaetz was withdrawing from the nomination, CNN reported that he had a second alleged sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl.

Even as the allegations grew this week, Mr. Trump stood by his nominee. When asked by reporters on Wednesday if he was considering replacing Mr. Gaetz, the president-elect responded, “No.”

Mr. Trump had announced Mr. Gaetz as his pick for attorney general just two days before the Ethics Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss whether to release the report detailing its investigation. However, because he stepped down from his position to accept the nomination, the committee’s jurisdiction over Mr. Gaetz ended, creating doubt over whether the report would ever be released.

The committee did meet Wednesday to consider the report’s release, but the lawmakers on the panel, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, did not reach an agreement. A second meeting on the topic is scheduled for Dec. 5.

Also Wednesday, 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee asked the FBI to turn over the full evidentiary file in the defunct sex-trafficking probe involving Mr. Gaetz.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.