Closing summary
In a reversal, the GOP-led House ethics committee reportedly voted to release its report into Matt Gaetz, the Republican former congressman whom Donald Trump briefly nominated to lead the justice department. Gaetz’s candidacy for the job tanked amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use, and in a post on X the former congressman acknowledged that he “partied, womanized, drank and smoked” in the past, but said he was a changed man. The report is expected to be released after Friday. Meanwhile, Trump said that Liz Cheney, an avowed foe of his and a former Republican congresswoman, “could be in a lot of trouble”, after House Republicans released a report accusing her of witness tampering, and calling for the FBI to investigate her.
Here’s what happened today:
The Senate armed services committee will on 14 January vote on whether to advance Pete Hegseth’s controversial nomination to lead the Pentagon, Reuters reports.
Republican senators have been meeting with Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI. Despite his calls to downsize the bureau and use it to investigate Trump’s enemies, several senators’ reviews of Patel have been positive.
The supreme court agreed to hear arguments over a law that could lead to TikTok being banned in the United States, and a separate case concerning state funding for Planned Parenthood.
Trump’s attorneys are again trying to get his convictions on felony business fraud charges tossed out.
Congress is mulling a bill to fund the government for another three months and prevent a shutdown that would otherwise begin Friday, but Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy do not like it.
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Senate committee plans to vote on Pete Hegseth's defense secretary nomination on 14 January
The Senate armed services committee will hold a hearing on Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon on 14 January, Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the plan.
Lawmakers on the panel, which will be controlled by the GOP beginning in the new year, plan to vote on advancing Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate after the hearing. He will need the support of 51 senators in the chamber to be confirmed as defense secretary.
Donald Trump nominated Hegseth, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who most recently was employed as a host by Fox News, for the job shortly after winning the presidential election. Since then, reports emerged that he was accused of sexual assault, and reached a settlement agreement with his accuser, though police filed no charges and Hegseth denies any wrongdoing. He also has been reported to have drunk to excess, made offensive statements in public, engaged in infidelity repeatedly and mismanaged the finances of two charities he was involved in.
Nonetheless, no Republican senators have yet declared they will not vote for him, and Trump has said he stands by Hegseth. Here’s more on his record:
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