Impeachment

• The House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page report alleging that President Donald Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine for investigations into his political rivals and that he obstructed the House’s impeachment inquiry. The House Judiciary Committee also released a report explaining the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the House would begin drafting impeachment articles against Trump, saying it has become clear that he violated his oath of office by pressuring a foreign government to help in the 2020 election.

• White House counsel Pat Cipollone met with Senate Republicans to plot strategy for a likely Senate trial. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Cipollone told senators that articles of impeachment were not worthy of being approved by the House, but that Trump is eager to present his case in the other chamber.

• Phone records revealed in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment showed extensive contact between Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the White House at key moments of the president’s interactions with Ukraine. The records also showed contact between Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

• Trump administration officials disputed some of the details in the impeachment report about calls between Trump and Giuliani and White House aides, with people familiar with the phone records saying a number that has been said to be “associated with” the White House Office of Management and Budget is actually a generic White House switchboard number. Democrats have said the calls suggested contact between Giuliani and the OMB at key moments in Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

• Giuliani was in Budapest and Kyiv to talk with former Ukrainian prosecutors for a documentary series pushing an anti-impeachment narrative for a conservative television outlet. The visit came as Democrats have intensified their scrutiny of the former New York City mayor for his role in the Ukraine matter.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that he never spoke to Trump “from the position of a quid pro quo,” but criticized the American president for freezing U.S. military assistance to his country. Trump responded by tweeting that his Ukrainian counterpart’s comments qualified as an exoneration, and he told reporters at the White House that the interview should mean that it’s “case over” for impeachment as House lawmakers prepare to move into the next phase.

• Amid the impeachment inquiry, little has changed in how voters rate his job performance, including some key 2020 battlegrounds. The latest Morning Consult polling tracking the president’s job approval in each state found that between September and November, there has been no statistical change in Trump’s net approval rating in 37 states, and clocked the largest share of Republicans (56 percent) saying they “strongly approve” of his job performance since he became president.

The Trump administration 

• The Trump administration is considering sending as many as 14,000 additional U.S. troops to the Middle East to counter Iran, according to U.S. officials.

• Current and former U.S. officials said Trump has communicated with Giuliani and others on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russia and other foreign intelligence services, raising the possibility that Moscow was able to learn details about Trump’s pressure on Ukraine. There is no indication that the president’s calls were shielded from surveillance, suggesting Trump has defied security guidance and practices followed by past presidents.

• The Trump administration negotiated a prisoner exchange with Iran, securing the release of Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton who had been detained in the country since 2016 in suspicion of espionage which U.S. officials called baseless, in return for the freedom of Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist who was arrested at a Chicago airport last year and convicted on charges that he violated American trade sanctions.

• It also tightened work requirements for recipients of federal food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a move that could end benefits for about 700,000 Americans by the middle of next year. States seeking to shield adults without dependents from the work requirements would have to meet more stringent standards by April.

• Attorney General William Barr has privately expressed disagreement with a finding in his department’s forthcoming inspector general report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had enough information in July 2016 to justify its investigation into members of Trump’s campaign, according to sources. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been probing whether the FBI acted lawfully when it secured a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

• The Trump administration released $105 million in U.S. military assistance to Lebanon just before Thanksgiving, according to two congressional sources and an administration official. Despite congressional approval, the money had remained in limbo at the Office of Management and Budget since September, and the White House has not offered an explanation for the delay, drawing some lawmakers to draw comparisons with the delay of U.S. assistance to Ukraine at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

• Trump said on Twitter that the United States will reinstate tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, saying that currency manipulation by the two countries is hurting U.S. farmers. It is not clear what prompted the move since his administration had initially spared the two South American countries from his 2018 metal tariffs after saying it had reached trade agreements with them.

• Speaking in London at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting, Trump criticized France as his administration proposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion of French imports.

• Trump said Saudi King Mohammed Bin Salman called him to “express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies” after a member of the Saudi Air Force was suspected to have been behind a deadly shooting at a U.S. Navy base in Florida.

Congress

• Rep. Duncan Hunter announced that he will resign “after the holidays” after pleading guilty to a count of misusing campaign funds for personal expenses, months after his wife reached a deal with prosecutors, admitting to a criminal charge and cooperating in their case against her husband. The California Republican had been stripped of his committee assignments and told he should no longer cast votes.

• The Senate released its 2020 legislative calendar, leaving the entire month of January empty as it faces the prospect of an impeachment trial. The Senate is set to be out of Washington, D.C., during the week of the Democratic National Convention, much of August and for the final stretch of the 2020 campaign season beginning Oct. 9.

• Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), who first came to Congress after he won a June 2010 special election to replace Republican Nathan Deal, said he will not run for re-election in 2020. Graves, who represents a district viewed as safe for Republicans, is the 17th House Republican to announce he will not seek re-election next year.

• Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), who was first elected in 2012, said he will not seek re-election next year. Washington’s 10th District leans Democratic, and is expected to yield a crowded field of candidates vying to succeed him.

• Four-term Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) said he will not run for re-election next year after his Republican-leaning district was redrawn by state lawmakers into a safe Democratic district. Holding has said he would consider a run for Senate or House under a new map in 2022.

• In a 49-44 vote, the Senate approved Sarah Pitlyk’s nomination to be a judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. Trump’s nominee was controversial, rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association.

• In a 226-188 vote, the House passed a symbolic measure in support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting the longtime U.S. opposition to Israel’s settlement expansion and “moves toward unilateral annexation of territory.” Five Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the resolution, which serves as an implicit criticism of the administration’s policy in the region, while the four Democrats known as the “Squad” opposed the resolution.

• The House passed an anti-robocall bill, 417-3. The measure is widely supported in the Senate.

• Gov. Brian Kemp appointed financial executive Kelly Loeffler to succeed Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, who is stepping down because of health issues.

2020

• As California Sen. Kamala Harris ended her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, citing the lack of financing needed to run a competitive campaign, polling suggests her departure will do little to alter the state of the race since her supporters are looking to go in different directions. Morning Consult’s tracking poll found 22 percent of Harris supporters said their second choice was former Vice President Joe Biden, 21 percent said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and 14 percent said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which could amount to an increase of roughly 1 percentage point for each candidate.

• Montana Gov. Steve Bullock dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination after falling short of the threshold to participate in multiple debates and failing to gain traction in the polls. His exit followed the withdrawal of former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who ended his own campaign last weekend.

• North Carolina businessman Garland Tucker ended his campaign to challenge incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis for the Republican nomination for Senate next year, citing the need for additional financial resources to finish the primary. The businessman, who had spent more than $1.5 million of his own money already, offered Tillis no endorsement.

• The House and Senate are in session this week.

• The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing tomorrow for House Intelligence Committee lawyers to present the findings of their impeachment inquiry.

• The House is set to vote on a sweeping drug-pricing bill.

• The Supreme Court is set to meet this week to consider a plea from Trump to block a New York grand jury from seeing his tax returns. Lawyers for Trump have also appealed to the Supreme Court to block a subpoena from House Democrats for his financial records.

• Trump said he had “no deadline” to reach a trade deal with China, injecting uncertainty into talks between Washington and Beijing over a “phase one” agreement and suggesting the trade dispute could drag on until after the 2020 election. Negotiators face a Dec. 15 deadline for new tariffs on consumer goods to take effect.

• The highly anticipated Justice Department inspector general report, set to be released tomorrow, is expected to detail problems with how the Federal Bureau of Investigation shared information with the overall department, according to sources familiar with the findings.

1) Rep. Duncan D. Hunter says he will plead guilty Tuesday to misusing campaign funds
Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post

2) Impeachment trial timing hangs over 2020 Senate calendar
Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call

3) White House to Tighten Work Requirements for Food-Stamp Aid
Jacob Bunge, The Wall Street Journal

4) Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All’
Molly Jong-Fast, The Daily Beast

5) Former official says Trump often refused to believe his intelligence briefings
Nicole Gaouette and Kylie Atwood, CNN

6) Congress seeks to avoid an approps nightmare before Christmas
Jennifer Shutt, Roll Call

7) U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, Olympia Democrat, announces retirement with slam at Trump, loss of civic discourse
David Gutman, The Seattle Times

8) Zelensky airs his grievances with Trump
Caitlin Oprysko, Politico

9) Trump Abruptly Exits NATO Gathering After Embarrassing Video Emerges
Annie Karni and Katie Rogers, The New York Times

10) 1st Supreme Court Gun-Rights Battle In 10 Years May Transform Legal Landscape
Nina Totenberg, NPR News