WASHINGTON - Elon Musk, now a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump, is aggressively defending Trump's nomination of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, and suggesting that Gaetz will help investigate opponents of the new administration.

"Gaetz will be great," Musk said on X, defending the resigned Florida congressman against criticism that he is an inexperienced lawyer who has been under investigation for child sex trafficking.

Shortly after Trump announced the Gaetz nomination on Wednesday, Musk noted on X that both have accused the government of targeting them with politically motivated investigations, and suggested that retribution is at hand.

"The Hammer of Justice is coming," Musk said.

Musk's message on Thursday was aimed at former National Security Adviser John Bolton, a Trump critic who described Gaetz as one of the worst Cabinet picks of all time.

"Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn't have the character," Bolton told NBC News. "He is a person of moral turpitude, and, notwithstanding how difficult it may be politically, this is a nomination the Republican Party should oppose."

In his X post defending Gaetz, Musk said Bolton "is a staggeringly dumb warmonger, being against someone is a great sign!"

Musk, the billionaire businessman whom Trump tapped to head up a new government efficiency program, is expected to play a large role in the new administration.

The Justice Department spent two years investigating Gaetz over allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl and may have violated federal sex trafficking laws. The DOJ took no action against Gaetz, who denied the allegations and said he was set up.

The House Ethics Committee has also investigated Gaetz, but that probe is up in the air given the fact that the congressman resigned on Wednesday,

Gaetz has said the investigation of him are politically motivated, and said on social media that "we ought to have a full-court press against this WEAPONIZED government that has been turned against our people. And if that means abolishing every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!”

In nominating Gaetz to head up the Justice Department, Trump - who in 2023 was indicted in four separate criminal cases - said that "few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System."