The House Ethics Committee weighs releasing their report on Matt Gaetz. Comcast is expected to announce a spinoff of its cable networks. And Susan Smith, who made headlines for killing her sons 30 years ago, is up for parole.
Here’s what to know today.
House Ethics Committee weighs whether to release report about its Matt Gaetz investigation
Members of the House Ethics Committee are scheduled to meet this afternoon to discuss whether to make public a report about its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump named as his pick to run the Justice Department.
The bipartisan committee has investigated Gaetz, who represented Florida, on and off for the past three years as it looked into allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, gave special favors to people with whom he had personal relationships and obstructed the probe. Gaetz has denied all of the allegations.
The committee has several options. It could vote to publicly release the report or to not release it. It could forward it to the Senate. Or it could choose to take no action.
Several Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have said they want to review the House report before a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Gaetz. Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the committee, said the report should “absolutely” be released to the public and that it should be sent to the Senate at the very least.
A lawyer for two women who provided closed-door testimony earlier this year to the committee, accusing Gaetz of paying them for sex multiple times, said that his clients do not want to testify publicly. Instead, attorney Joel Leppard said the women hope the committee will release the investigation to avoid having to rehash the same allegations.
A source said a hacker gained access to a file containing the sworn depositions of the two women. It was not immediately clear whether any of the hacked information had been made public.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, is against releasing the report. The Ethics Committee has jurisdiction only over sitting members of Congress, Johnson argues. Gaetz resigned from office last week after Trump named him as his attorney general selection.
But there is precedent for the Ethics Committee to publish reports after a member of Congress has resigned. Read the full story here.
Amid the scrutiny and debate, Trump is pressing forward with his choice. He has personally made calls to Republican senators to ask for their support on behalf of Gaetz. Multiple GOP senators also said they have received calls from Gaetz himself to discuss the nomination. An official with Trump’s transition team said they know Gaetz is the toughest Cabinet confirmation they will have to fight for by far.
More politics news:
- Trump named Linda McMahon as his pick to lead the Education Department. McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive, would oversee a department that Trump has said he plans to “get rid” of as it currently exists.
- Trump said he will nominate Mehmet Oz, a former Pennsylvania Senate candidate and TV personality, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Trump announced billionaire financial services executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department. Lutnick has led and been the public face of Trump’s transition.
- Trump is creating a political problem for himself with his Cabinet selections, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd writes. “He’s appointing folks he says share his vision — so no excuses of being jammed by the ol’ establishment wing of the GOP.” Read the full analysis here.
- New York prosecutors told a judge that sentencing in Trump’s hush money trial, which was scheduled for next week, should be postponed.
- Trump has started receiving intelligence briefings after having declined them during his campaign.
- Three maps of major “blue wall” cities shows how weak voter turnout contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss.
- Despite her loss, Harris has a final chance to defy Trump.
- Senate Democrats who won their 2024 races in states where Trump won said their victories weren’t “rocket science.” Here’s what worked for them.
Comcast to announce spinoff of cable networks
Comcast is expected to announce a plan today to spin off its cable networks into a separate company, two people familiar with the matter said. The split would include some of NBCUniversal’s best-known brands, including MSNBC, E!, Syfy, Golf Channel, USA, CNBC and Oxygen. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.
President Mike Cavanaugh said on a quarterly earnings call last month, when the company alluded to a possible spinoff, that broadcast network NBC and streaming service Peacock would remain with Comcast. Bravo is also expected to remain part of Comcast, CNBC reported. Here’s what else we know.
U.S. closes Kyiv embassy over ‘significant’ attack threat
The United States said this morning that its embassy in Kyiv had closed after receiving “specific information of a potential significant air attack.”
The Ukrainian capital came under attack by Russian drones early this morning, part of an intensified wave of strikes targeting energy infrastructure that has killed more than a dozen people. The renewed threat to Kyiv follows news that Ukraine carried out its first strike on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons yesterday.
The Kremlin has reacted furiously to the relaxation of U.S. restrictions on its ally, and yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin formally revised his country’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for his country’s use of nuclear weapons.
Susan Smith up for parole 30 years after killing her sons
A parole board will consider today whether Susan Smith is fit to re-enter society 30 years after the South Carolina woman shocked the nation by admitting to killing her two sons. Smith’s case drew national media attention in 1994, when she claimed she was carjacked by a Black man and that the man drove away with her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex. The boys’ disappearance sparked a nine-day manhunt, only for Smith to confess to killing her sons by letting her car roll into a nearby lake with the boys inside, watching as they drowned.
Smith, now 53, has argued in her own defense while in prison. In 2015, she wrote that she was “not myself” on the night of the killings. But several people, including Smith’s now ex-husband and father of her sons, are expected to ask that she stay behind bars. The parole board will also likely consider the multiple disciplinary actions against Smith in her three decades in prison, which have involved sexual encounters with prison guards and drug use.
Read All About It
- A powerful atmospheric river event in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest could bring up to 15 inches of rain and heavy snow, as well as near-hurricane-force winds, forecasters warn.
- Rafael Nadal played the final match of his legendary pro tennis career, losing in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup.
- A child in California tested positive for bird flu despite having no known contact with an infected animal, public health officials said.
- Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is recovering from a major fall. He arrived at his latest comedy show with an eye patch broken wrist and bruised face.
Staff Pick: Another blow for Mississippi’s embattled capital
I think Jacksonians, like most of the country, were still taking in the results of the 2024 presidential election, when the news broke Nov. 6. that the city’s charismatic mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, was facing federal bribery charges.
Mississippi’s capital has taken some hits over the years, including a drinking water crisis and high homicide rate. I’m not sure the latest blow, the indictments of Lumumba and two other elected officials, has fully settled.
Residents and community leaders I spoke with think the fallout won’t be limited to what happens in a federal courtroom. And they worry the case could open the door for state lawmakers to grab more control over the city’s affairs infringing on the right of a major Black city to self govern. — Bracey Harris, enterprise reporter
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