Morning Report — Wray to exit FBI; Kari Lake chosen for VOA  

In today’s issue:  

• FBI’s Wray makes way for Trump pick Patel  
• House passes defense bill
• Supreme Court dismisses Nvidia appeal
• Syrian rebel leader urges “stability and calm”

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who began his tenure atop the bureau in 2017 as the choice of then-President Trump, does not want to become the third bureau director in history to be fired by a president. He said Wednesday that he will resign at the end of the current administration. The decision was not a surprise.

Trump made clear before and after the November election how much he distrusts the FBI and the Justice Department and would like to dispense with the concept of FBI independence in favor of loyal appointees who share his belief that law enforcement and justice have for years been “weaponized” against him and others.

Trump on Nov. 30 said he planned to nominate conservative Kash Patel, a former Justice Department lawyer, to lead the FBI, although Wray has three years remaining in a 10-year term. Patel has advocated for “a comprehensive housecleaning” of the Justice Department, which he maintains has protected high-ranking members of the Democratic Party while unjustly targeting Republicans and their allies. The president-elect’s pick to be attorney general is former Florida Attorney General and ally Pam Bondi. 

Trump in 2017 fired former FBI Director James Comey, a dramatic move that led to a prolonged investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller of allegations Trump was tied to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller was Comey’s FBI predecessor. He reported that Russia interfered with the 2016 election but did not find evidence of collusion between Trump and Moscow. “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Mueller’s report said. 

Trump’s grievances about that period loomed large, and Wray, who was held over by President Biden, participated in federal investigations of Trump after he lost the 2020 election. 

“After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” said the FBI director, who will be 58 on Tuesday. “My goal is to keep the focus on our mission. … In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”

Ten-year terms for FBI directors became a legislative reform in the 1970s in response to J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year reign at the bureau and former President Nixon’s actions during Watergate. The Senate Judiciary Committee in 1974 discussed how Congress could create a check on FBI directors as well as on presidents. Senators said the FBI leader should not be seen as “an ordinary political appointee” because of the risk of “infringing individual rights and serving partisan or personal ambitions.”

Presidents retain the power to fire federal officials for cause, including at independent agencies. And Trump’s Senate allies, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), this week unveiled assertions of “failed leadership” against Wray, advising him to “move on.”

Pentagon: Meanwhile, a separate “unpleasant” episode is ahead in January involving a Trump Cabinet pick, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who warned this week that Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing won’t be a breeze. Hegseth reached a settlement with a woman over allegations of sexual assault in a hotel room, which he says amounted to consensual sex, and has denied accounts of excessive drinking and problems during work with veterans’ organizations.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters Wednesday she met with Hegseth for more than an hour to discuss a range of issues as well as his experience, but will wait to see an FBI background check and for the upshot of January’s anticipated confirmation hearing before making her decision.

“I pressed him on both his position on military issues as well as the allegations against him,” the moderate Republican said. “I don’t think there was anything that we did not cover.”

Hegseth on Wednesday appeared to reverse his previous opposition to women serving in combat. “We support all women serving in our military today who do a fantastic job across the globe, in our Pentagon, and deliver critical aspects, all aspects, combat included, and they have so for quite some time,” he told reporters. “So, I look forward to being a leader for every single member of this Pentagon, men and women.”

Collins, one of the female Republicans in the Senate whose views about Trump’s controversial Pentagon choice are being closely watched, in 2021 was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges for inciting an insurrection. She is up for reelection in 2026. 

More Trump appointments Wednesday: former TV news anchor, election denier and Trump loyalist Kari Lake, an unsuccessful Arizona Senate and gubernatorial candidate, to be director of Voice of America; Michael Rigas, who served in Trump’s first term, to be deputy secretary for management and resources at the State Department; Peter Lamelas, a Florida physician and GOP donor, to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina; Republican donor Leandro Rizzuto Jr., heir to the Conair Corporation fortune, to be U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States; and Florida personal injury lawyer Daniel Newlin to be U.S. ambassador to Colombia. 

CIA: Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr., selected to lead the Health and Human Services Department, wants his daughter-in-law to be chosen for the No. 2 position at the CIA, an idea that has sparked “real drama” inside the Trump transition, Axios reports. Why? Kennedy believes the CIA had a role in his uncle’s death and that his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, could help explore that idea from inside the agency. She spent eight years as a CIA analyst before leaving in 2010 and was her father-in-law’s presidential campaign manager. “The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up,” Kennedy said about his uncle’s death during a podcast conversation last year. He also said he believes there is “convincing” but “circumstantial” evidence that the CIA was involved in his father’s death, as well. Trump previously said he would release the last of the John F. Kennedy assassination files.

Politico: Trump this morning will be in New York City to celebrate being named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” and to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The magazine designation, after listing finalists, will take place during NBC’s “Today” show.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ Biden, who pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, this month, commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people Thursday who had been placed on home confinement and pardoned 39 individuals convicted of nonviolent crimes. “There is more to come,” said a statement, which did not identify the clemency recipients by name.

▪ Trump invited President Xi Jinping of China to attend the Jan. 20 inauguration.  

▪ A shadowy super PAC that popped up just before the 2024 election was bankrolled by an opaque nonprofit, The Hill’s investigation reveals, obscuring the ultimate source of the funds and raising “several red flags” for campaign finance experts.

LEADING THE DAY 

CONGRESS AND DEFENSE: The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, sending the mammoth measure to the Senate for consideration ahead of Congress’s end-of-month deadline. The legislation cleared the chamber in a bipartisan 281-140 vote, with 200 Republicans and 81 Democrats joining forces to push it over the finish line. Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) said he expects the package to hit the floor early next week.

The legislation advanced out of the House despite opposition from liberal Democrats, and some apprehension from Republicans, who took issue with a number of culture-war amendments that made it into the traditionally bipartisan bill. The most contentious provision is a restriction on the use of funds from the health care program for active-duty service members, for gender-affirming care for their children 18 years and younger.

Several Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the language. 

“As I said a few days ago, blatantly denying health care to people who need it — just because of a biased notion against transgender people — is wrong,” he wrote in a statement.

The Washington Post: Democrats and some Republicans were frustrated with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who they said undermined the legislation’s bipartisan support.

SHUTDOWN AVOIDANCE: Lawmakers say they are edging closer to a deal to keep the government’s lights on in eight days. The Hill’s Aris Folley reports there’s some optimism in the Capitol that bill text could arrive as early as this weekend as the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline quickly approaches, but they’ve also been mum on many of the specifics as they work through their differences. 

Disaster aid has been one of the key holdups, as leaders are expected to tack billions of dollars intended for recovery efforts from hurricanes Helene and Milton onto the forthcoming stopgap.

“The cake is still being baked. There’s a ton of people trying to get in the kitchen, and they’re not even into the mixing bowl yet,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), chair of the subcommittee that crafts annual funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday when asked about disaster aid talks. Amodei said he thinks “there’s a lot of things” coming together as leadership tries to strike a deal on a stopgap, but he noted “disaster is one of the harder ones.”

Republican senators fear that the narrow House GOP majority in next year’s Congress could rain chaos on Trump’s agenda, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, and are pushing to finish up work on the overdue annual appropriations bills before Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Johnson has insisted on punting the annual spending bills into March of next year, but GOP senators worry that’s a big strategic mistake.

“I hate it, I think it’s a mistake,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) of the plan. “Speaking of rebellious House members, House Republicans, I think they’re making a mistake forcing the CR into March,” he said, using an abbreviation for continuing resolution (CR). “I think it’s a bad strategy. I just think clearing the deck would have been so much better.

▪ The Hill: Rep. Brian Mast’s (R-Fla.) selection to be the next chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is the latest sign of the Republican Party being reshaped by the next generation of Trump allies. 

▪ Politico: Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is making a bid to lead the House Rules Committee next year.

▪ The Hill: House Agriculture ranking member David Scott (D-Ga.) faces dual challenges to his leadership from Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.). 

▪ Politico: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) is poised to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, marking a generational shift in the party’s power centers.

NLRB: The Senate on Wednesday blocked Lauren McFerran’s re-nomination to the National Labor Relations Board, opening the door for Republican control of the board starting next year. Senators voted 49 to 50 against a five-year term for McFerran, the NLRB’s chair, with two former Democrats, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), joining all but one Senate Republican to oppose the re-nomination. 

Online safety: Elon Musk’s eleventh-hour support for a children’s online safety bill is creating an early test of the tech billionaire and Trump ally’s influence on Capitol Hill. Musk over the weekend called for the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a polarizing bipartisan bill intended to create more protections for minors online, after officials from his social media platform X, worked on changes with the bill’s Senate sponsors. But Johnson has shown little sign of relenting on his concerns about KOSA, sparking questions over Musk’s reach to push the bill across the finish line.  

The Hill: A disputed handshake is at the center of a Tuesday incident involving Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that resulted in an Illinois man’s arrest, according to a police report and a witness who spoke to The Hill.

WHERE AND WHEN  

• The House will meet at 9 a.m. The Senate meets at 10 a.m. 
• The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m.
• Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public events.
• The secretary of State arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, during his 12th visit to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last year. Blinken will confer with King Abdullah II at midday local time before meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi of Jordan to discuss Middle East events, including in Syria.
• The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press | Jeff Chiu 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal from Nvidia in a securities lawsuit against the chipmaking giant, allowing the case to move forward. Justices dismissed the appeal as “improvidently granted” in an unsigned, one-sentence opinion without explanation. 

Nvidia’s suit, brought by Swedish investment firm Ohman J:or Fonder, centers on allegations that company executives, including CEO Jensen Huang, misled investors about the extent its sales depended on volatile cryptocurrency miners.  

New York: Attorney General Letitia James (D) rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to drop a $486 million judgment in a civil fraud conviction against the president-elect that involved, in part, exaggerated corporate assets aimed at securing more favorable loans. Judge Arthur Engoron handed down a $350 million judgment against Trump, his company and several top executives in February after a monthslong civil trial that included testimony from Trump and his oldest children. The amount has since swelled to over $497 million, including prejudgment interest, with Trump on the hook for the lion’s share — $486 million, the attorney general’s office said.  

New York Judge Juan Merchan could rule anytime on how Trump’s White House victory changes the future of his criminal hush money case. Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) are battling over whether the jury’s verdict finding Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records should stand. With Trump’s inauguration just 40 days away, the judge must consider several paths forward before the clock runs out. 

CEO murder prosecution: Suspect Luigi Mangione’s fingerprints appear to match evidence gathered by investigators in the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder case. The prints recovered from a water bottle and a cellphone were smudged, but law enforcement sources said they appear to match the prints sent from Altoona, Pa., where Mangione, 26, was arrested on Monday. He is being held in Pennsylvania without bail on murder and other charges and is fighting extradition to New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) says she will sign required documentation to move the suspect to her state as soon as possible. Police have a notebook belonging to Mangione that allegedly contains a rationale for killing CEO Brian Thompson. 

TikTok: TikTok’s future in the U.S. is increasingly in jeopardy, after a federal appeals court rejected the app’s push to overturn a law requiring its China-based parent company ByteDance to divest or face a ban starting next month. The popular social media app’s fate now rests in the hands of the Supreme Court and the incoming Trump administration, which has offered at-best tepid support for TikTok in the wake of the election. 

“TikTok is in an increasingly desperate situation,” Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, said in a statement.

Meta: How much goodwill can a $1 million donation buy? CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his company donated that sum to Trump’s inaugural fund.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press | Mark Schiefelbein

AS WASHINGTON tries to promote stability after Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed in Syria, national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Jordan and Turkey today and Friday to discuss the developments in Syria.

The Syrian rebels who ousted the regime, the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, said Wednesday that they further consolidated control over the country’s east as they seek to bring political stability. Mohammed al-Bashir, who previously led the HTS-backed governing body in the Idlib province, said he will serve as Syria’s caretaker prime minister until March, with the backing of the rebel coalition. Bashir told Al Jazeera it was time for “stability and calm.”

United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva the transition needed to ensure “the representation of the broadest possible spectrum of the Syrian society and the Syrian parties.”

“The reality is so far that HTS and also the other armed groups have been sending good messages to the Syrian people … of unity, of inclusiveness,” Pedersen noted.

▪ The New York Times: Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of HTS, promised to hold the remnants of the old regime accountable for their crimes in a post on social media.

▪ NPR: One family thought they had left Syria forever. After Assad’s fall, they plan to return.

▪ CNN: In recent days, the Israeli military has engaged in a concerted effort to destroy Syrian military assets, striking air bases, ports, and weapons stockpiles across the country.

In Gaza, Hamas has yielded to two of Israel’s key demands for a ceasefire deal, raising hopes of an agreement that could release some hostages within days despite the repeated failure of previous negotiations. The group told mediators for the first time that it would agree to a deal that would allow Israeli forces to remain in Gaza temporarily when the fighting stops — previously a key sticking point.

Russia could launch its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine again soon, the Pentagon said Wednesday, citing a new U.S. intelligence assessment. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Russia is “trying to use every weapon that they have in their arsenal to intimidate Ukraine.”

Al Jazeera: “Abandoned”: Ukraine war veterans who fought Russia feel snubbed, forgotten.

OPINION 

■ If Wray is stepping down, can anyone stand up to Trump? by Ruth Marcus, columnist, The Washington Post.

■ Prepare for guacamole to be a luxury item, by Rebecca Patterson, guest essayist, The New York Times.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press | Frank C. Curtin

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Because America caught a new whiff this week of presidential marketing, we’re asking readers to guess or Google some branded blarney.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

The president-elect turned to Truth Social this week to promote a $199 “limited edition” Trump-branded cologne and perfume called ________.

1. Drill Baby Drill
2. Sweet Revenge
3. See Red
4. Fight, Fight, Fight

Stephen Colbert asked former first lady Michelle Obama during her book tour last year to name her “favorite smell.” What was her answer?

1. “Love in White” perfume by Creed
2. “Ocean air in Hawaii and at Martha’s Vineyard”
3. “My husband”
4. “Bacon”

President John F. Kennedy promoted a public image of outdoorsy vigor and masculinity, which inspired occasional curiosity about his purported favorite cologne(s). Which is a scent reportedly worn by JFK and associated with him and sold on the White House Historical Association website?

1. Brut
2. Eight & Bob
3. Aramis
4. Hai Karate

The museum store at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas sells “Dubya” men’s cologne.

1. True 
2. False 

Stay Engaged 

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