WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz, who has thundered at one prosecutor after another for perceived bias against the president-elect and emphatically amplified the Republican's rallying cry that the criminal investigations into him are “witch hunts.”

Gaetz, a four-term congressman from Florida’s Panhandle, has little experience as a practicing attorney and has carved out a reputation for himself in both Tallahassee and Washington as a right-wing provocateur who’s highly critical of federal agencies and deeply loyal to Trump.