Trump picks Pam Bondi for attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdraws

Joel Leppard, an attorney who represents two witnesses in the House Ethics Committee probe of Matt Gaetz, said that his clients are “relieved to have this chapter behind them” after the former Florida congressman’s withdrawal from attorney general consideration.

More background on the investigation: The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN.

The woman, who was 17 years old at the time, testified that the second sexual encounter, which has not previously been reported, included another adult woman. She also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

As news of former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s decision to opt out of seeking the attorney general post spread to senators on Capitol Hill, many members — who knew that Gaetz would be difficult to confirm — were struck by a sense of relief.

“It was going to be very challenging. Very challenging. The most challenging of the nominees,” one Republican senator speaking on the condition of background to speak freely.

For the last week, lawmakers had been staring down what was going to be a rocky several months to even get to Gaetz’s confirmation hearing, which many expected would be peppered with more and more details about what witnesses told the House Ethics Committee behind closed doors.

There was pressure mounting to force a vote on the floor to release the report even if House ethics did not, something a handful of Republicans signaled they could be open to in the new year. Some Republicans such as Republican Sen. John Cornyn had also made crystal clear to Gaetz that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vetting process would not be easy, telling reporters Wednesday that there would be no secrets.

“There is no way he was going to get confirmed. The transition team and he were well aware of that,” another GOP senator told CNN.

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said Thursday that he was “disappointed” that former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his nomination for attorney general.

While he didn’t offer names of people who he believes should be nominated as attorney general, Scott said the person who ultimately gets the job needs to create trust in the federal government.

“The American public has completely lost trust of the federal government, and so we’re going to have to have somebody in there that goes and creates trust,” Scott said.

Gaetz, who resigned from Congress shortly after being named Trump’s pick for the top post, is accused of having sex with a minor in 2017 and was the subject of a House ethics investigation.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that he respects Matt Gaetz’s decision to step down from consideration as attorney general.

“I think everybody has to make a decision that’s good for them and for their family,” Thune said. “And, you know, for whatever reason, he decided not to pursue it, so we respect the decision.”

Pressed on whether it was the right choice, Thune would not respond.

Remember: The Gaetz pick ignited significant controversy, with some Republican senators withholding support for the former Florida lawmaker until they learned more about a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” by Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing.

In announcing his decision Thursday, Gaetz said his confirmation had become a “distraction” for Donald Trump’s presidential transition and said he didn’t want to waste time on a “protracted Washington scuffle.”

Several Republicans in the upper chamber have praised the decision to avoid a potentially messy confirmation battle.

Senior congressional leaders in both parties are scrambling to determine if Matt Gaetz can return to the House next year after he abruptly pulled himself from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

But an early consensus is emerging at all levels of House leadership: Lawmakers and senior aides believe that Gaetz can still return in January — a scenario that some have privately feared could happen all along, according to more than a dozen sources.

Given the way Gaetz carefully crafted his resignation letter earlier this month, multiple sources tell CNN that there may be nothing stopping Gaetz from being sworn in at the start of the next Congress.

Even though Gaetz said in his resignation letter that he does “not intend to take the oath of office” next January, congressional sources say he is still on track to be named to the seat because the governor has not yet called a special election and he cannot preemptively resign from a Congress that has not started yet.

But there are a lot of factors at play, and it’s a complicated question with murky legal precedent. Some lawmakers have already asked the parliamentarian to weigh in and clear up the confusion, one source told CNN.

Gaetz’s decision also has ramifications for this current Congress: Democrats anticipate the House Ethics Committee’s findings on Gaetz are unlikely to emerge because Republicans on the panel will not have the appetite, and the investigation as it stands will be over when the next Congress begins, according to multiple Republican and Democratic sources.

Although GOP lawmakers were willing to block the report for now, there were signals that more Republicans would want to release the report if Gaetz was on the cusp of being nominated. It would only take four House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to release it on the House floor, or one Republican from the Ethics Committee when the panel next meets on December 5.

Donald Trump “deserves to nominate someone that has a fighting chance to be confirmed” and can move forward in the Senate, CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings said.

It comes as former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz announced that he would withdraw from consideration for the job after being Trump’s first pick.

Jennings said that Trump “went out on a limb” by choosing Gaetz to head the Department of Justice and it “got sawed off pretty quickly.” He said, this time, the president-elect should choose someone with more conventional qualifications.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler announced Thursday he plans to step down on Inauguration Day, allowing President-elect Donald Trump to install a Wall Street cop who could be friendlier to the crypto industry.

Trump had promised over the summer to replace Gensler, whose term doesn’t expire until 2026. It’s typical for SEC chiefs to step down when a new administration takes power.

During his tenure, Gensler outraged the crypto industry with a tough regulatory stance. The crypto industry aggressively backed Trump in the 2024 election, hoping for a lighter regulatory touch. Bitcoin has skyrocketed in value since Trump’s victory and rose sharply after Gensler announced his departure.

At the end of a detailed list of accomplishments during Gensler’s tenure, the SEC statement noted the agency took action against crypto firms for fraud, misconduct and other misconduct.

Republican senators who were facing a potentially messy confirmation process for President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, say they are pleased with his decision to step down Thursday.

The Gaetz pick had been under heavy scrutiny as the House Ethics Committee weighed releasing a report on allegations of wrongdoing, including “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,” by the Republican. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Here’s what some GOP senators are saying after Gaetz’s announcement:

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said of Gaetz’s withdrawal: “It’s a good thing.”

GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis said it’s good Gaetz recognized he was a distraction and that this will allow Trump to appoint someone “equally tenacious” to head the Justice Department.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she was “surprised” but “pleased” with Gaetz’s decision to withdraw. Collins previously expressed serious concerns about Trump’s pick and said she wanted to see the ethics report.

The Maine lawmaker said Gaetz’s decision likely reflected the outcome of conversations with senators this week, especially members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fierce Trump ally, said he respected Gaetz’s decision.

“He is very smart and talented and will continue to contribute to our nation’s wellbeing for years to come,” Graham wrote of the former Florida lawmaker. “I look forward to working with President Trump regarding future nominees to get this important job up and running.”

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, another Gaetz skeptic, said his confirmation “would have been problematic.”

GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said it’s a good sign Gaetz withdrew, calling it a “positive development.”

This post has been updated with more reaction from Capitol Hill.

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Manu Raju explains why Gaetz's withdrawal is a relief for the GOP

01:59 - Source: CNN

Ronna McDaniel, former Republican National Committee chair, said that former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz did the right thing in withdrawing from being considered for attorney general.

“I think the numbers weren’t there. He came here. He met with senators. They started doing the math,” McDaniel said on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” referring to Gaetz coming to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senators in an attempt to garner support.

“It was becoming a distraction, this was dominating the news. We were seeing the drip-drip-drip and he did what I think was the right thing,” she added.

McDaniel added that she believes a lot of people agree with Gaetz’s decision.

Looking forward, the former RNC chair said it’s very important to Trump that he finds an attorney general who is loyal to him.

This post has been updated with additional comments from McDaniel.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called Vice President-elect JD Vance and President-elect Donald Trump separately to inform them of his decision to withdraw his name from attorney general consideration, a source familiar with the calls said.

While President-election Donald Trump was all in on Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, many allies and advisers in his orbit had serious doubts over whether Gaetz would be able to be confirmed by the Senate, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Those doubts had been directly shared with Trump, the sources said, even as Trump believed he was the right person to “disrupt” the Department of Justice, as one Trump adviser characterized it.

Sources who were briefed on the meetings Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance held with Republican senators on Wednesday said they felt the members were keeping an open mind on Gaetz, but there was clear uneasiness in the Senate about what could still unfold regarding the allegations against him.

President-elect Donald Trump does not have a new name in mind for attorney general and now returns to the drawing board, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN.

He had struggled to find a candidate he liked initially, which is what led him to Matt Gaetz in the first place.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Sullivan & Cromwell attorney Robert Giuffra had been two of the final names he was looking at last week. Trump wasn’t sold on either. And given he has been mainly focused on Treasury and the FBI this week, this withdrawal restarts that process.

Some in his orbit have speculated that he could defer to his pick for deputy attorney general, his personal attorney Todd Blanche, but that remains to be seen.

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, who took a step on Wednesday to trigger a vote to release the House Ethics Committee’s report into allegations against Matt Gaetz, says in a statement that while he welcomes the news that Gaetz withdrew from consideration as attorney general, “it remains important that the Gaetz report be made available to the American people.”

The House is expected to vote over whether to release the report after the Thanksgiving break. Gaetz’s decision to withdraw doesn’t impact the procedural moves that Democrats have put in motion to trigger that vote.

At least one Republican lawmaker – Derrick Van Orden – has already said he would vote in favor of releasing the report, but Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to whip against it. Johnson has said he does not believe the report should be released.

If the House has full attendance, Johnson can afford to lose three GOP votes for legislation to pass.

President-elect Donald Trump and members of his transition team were notified that Matt Gaetz would be withdrawing his name from attorney general consideration before he made the announcement, two sources familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The source noted that there was a belief that there was more damning information coming out from the House ethics report, and that members of Gaetz’s orbit learned there may be witnesses that had been interviewed by the committee that had been previously unknown.

Multiple sources also said that while Gaetz’s meetings with GOP senators yesterday were not negative, it became clear that there were too many hard nos from senators, and that information expected to come out of the ethics report would likely make confirmation impossible.

President-elect Donald Trump praised his pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, who moments ago withdrew from consideration for the Cabinet post.

Trump’s transition team said that the president-elect “remains committed to choosing a leader for the Department of Justice who will strongly defend the Constitution and end the weaponization of our justice system.”

In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, said Trump will announce when he has made another pick.

This post has been updated with Trump’s transition team. CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed reporting to this post.

Then-Rep. Matt Gaetz attends the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, 2024.

Former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz is withdrawing from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, he said in a post on X Thursday.

The former Florida lawmaker said he made the decision after meeting with senators Wednesday.

Gaetz’s meetings with senators this week appeared to go well, but in the end, it was a “math problem” in terms of getting enough backing for his confirmation, a source familiar told CNN. The source could not say whether the potential release of a House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz played a role in him stepping aside.

Remember: Trump’s selection of Gaetz came under heavy scrutiny, as the Ethics Committee weighed releasing the report on allegations of wrongdoing, including “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,” by the Republican.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

CNN’s Pamela Brown contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with additional details on Gaetz and his statement.

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Matt Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration

02:29 - Source: CNN

The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN.

The woman, who was 17 years old at the time, testified that the second sexual encounter, which has not previously been reported, included another adult woman. She also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied having sex with a minor and was not charged after the Justice Department investigated these alleged encounters. CNN has reached out to Gaetz for comment.

Gaetz and President-elect Donald Trump were working to lock down support on Capitol Hill for the former Florida congressman to become the next attorney general before he announced withdrawing from consideration today.

Members of the Republican-led House Ethics panel voted along party lines on Wednesday not to release the results of their investigation and instead decided to meet again on December 5 to vote on the final report.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, claimed Thursday that due to the lack of charges, he was “completely cleared” in an investigation into a sexual assault allegation made against him.

“As far as the media is concerned, I’ll keep this very simple. The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared. That’s where I’m going to leave it,” he told reporters when asked if he sexually assaulted a woman in Monterey, California.

A California woman told police that Hegseth in 2017 physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.

The report does not say that police found the allegations to be false.

Hegseth is on Capitol Hill with Vice President-elect JD Vance, where they have been meeting with Republican senators.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said that the agriculture industry has expressed some concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , which he wants Kennedy to address.

GOP Missouri Sen.Josh Hawley dismissed issues with Kennedy’s stances, including on abortion.

“I think the things that he and the sherpa need to get ahead of, for me. I’ve had some concerns expressed — I know, this is going to sound out of right field — but from the agriculture community, and it has more to do — less to do with the role that he would play in HHS, but things that I’ve at least heard from Ag commissioner and others,” said Tillis.

“Then we’ll talk about some of the things that have been reported, that I haven’t studied yet, on vaccines or whatever else,” he added.

Tillis sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which will have jurisdiction over Kennedy’s confirmation, and expects to meet with Kennedy to discuss his concerns.

However, when pressed by CNN on Kennedy falsely claiming that vaccines can cause autism, Tillis fired back, “How much time have you actually spent researching everything that he said, you personally? White papers, documentation, speeches at conferences?”

Hawley, on the other hand, said he was not concerned with Kennedy’s views on vaccines, or even his views on abortion.

Pressed on whether Kennedy’s pro-choice beliefs gave him pause, the staunchly anti-abortion senator said, “I assume that he’ll support the President’s policies.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks to reporters as he departs a news conference on Capitol Hill on November 15 in Washington, DC.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to say if he would encourage his members to support a Democratic resolution to force the disclosure of the ethics report on President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz.

“The report should be released,” Jeffries told CNN on Thursday, when asked if he would ask members to support the resolution.

More background: On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted not to release the results on their probe into allegations of wrongdoing, including “sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,” by Gaetz. The former Florida lawmaker has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The GOP’s decision to block the findings — against the will of Democrats on the panel — raises major questions about what happens to the highly secretive information that the ethics panel has already collected on Gaetz.

CNN’s Annie Grayer and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

President-elect Donald Trump’s team should do more vetting of their choices for roles in the administration “up front,” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said Thursday, as two of Trump’s Cabinet selections face scrutiny over allegations of past wrongdoing.

The North Carolina Republican said he is not planning to meet with defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth today, since Tillis is not on the committee that will be evaluating his nomination.

He refused to weigh in on the new details of the sexual assault allegation against Hegseth, arguing lawmakers should wait to hear why the former “Fox and Friends” host wasn’t prosecuted.

“Wouldn’t the first question of due diligence be: Let’s see the full report, let’s understand the context, and also understand from the prosecutor who chose not to move forward with it, why?” Tillis said.

More from Capitol Hill: Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal declared Thursday that Hegseth’s “nomination is doomed.”

“It should never have been made. It was never vetted,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, an ally of Trump, refused to talk to reporters, saying only, “I like Pete,” as he entered a hearing.

Linda McMahon speaks during the America First Policy Institute's America First Agenda summit in Washington, DC, in July 2022.

A recent lawsuit alleges Linda McMahon, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the Department of Education, knowingly enabled the sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employee as early as the 1980s — allegations she denies.

McMahon is the former CEO of the WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince. As head of the WWE, McMahon oversaw its transformation from a wrestling entertainment company into a publicly traded media empire. She stepped down in 2009 to run for Senate, but she lost in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012.

As McMahon — who co-chairs Trump’s transition team — vies to be confirmed as Education secretary, a recent lawsuit raises questions about her care for children’s safety at the WWE.

The suit alleges McMahon, her husband, the WWE and TKO Group Holdings, the league’s parent company, knowingly allowed employee Melvin Phillips Jr. to use his position as ringside announcer to sexually exploit children.

The filing alleges Phillips would recruit children to work as “Ring Boys,” helping him set up and take down wrestling rings at WWE events. However, the job was a guise for sexually exploiting the children, which Phillips would do even in front of wrestlers and executives in the locker area, the lawsuit alleges. He also would often film his sexual abuse, according to the filing.

The suit was filed in October in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five John Does, who say they were ages 13 to 15 when Phillips met and recruited them to work as “Ring Boys.” Each of them say they suffered mental and emotional abuse as a result of the alleged abuse.

Read more about the allegations against McMahon.

Sen. John Barrasso walks out of the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill on April 23 in Washington, DC.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the incoming Senate Majority Whip, met with Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday.

Barrasso called Hegseth a “strong nominee” in a statement released after the meeting and added that Trump’s pick “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power – not the current administration’s woke political agenda.”

Barrasso also noted that “national security nominations have a history of quick confirmations in the Senate. I look forward to Pete’s hearing and a vote on the floor in January.”

GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee also met with Hegseth and Vice President-elect JD Vance. Speaking after the meeting, Hagerty dismissed 2017 sexual assault allegations against the would-be defense secretary. Hegseth denies the assault.

“It’s a case that’s been dismissed,” Hagerty said. “This is just dredging up something to try and smear and discredit a candidate.”

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on Senate Armed Services committee, also met with Hegseth, saying afterward that he thinks Trump’s Defense secretary pick will be in “good shape” for confirmation hearings. He said he didn’t discuss specifics of the assault case with Hegseth.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt said earlier Thursday he was “excited about the opportunity” to meet later today with Vance and Hegseth on Capitol Hill and, “We need outsiders.”

Asked about the allegations against Hegseth, Schmitt said, “That’s what our process is for, right?

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn didn’t respond to questions about sexual assault allegations against Hegseth, but called it “a great meeting” and said “we look forward to supporting him.”

This post has been updated with additional reporting of senators meeting with Hegseth and Vance.

The US Capitol building in Washington, on Wednesday, November 13.

Nick Begich’s flip of Alaska’s lone House seat will pad Republicans’ slim House majority — but with several members departing to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and just three races left to be decided, the party could enter the new year with very little room for error.

That narrow majority could shape a great deal on Capitol Hill — from how House Speaker Mike Johnson handles a looming government funding fight and unhappiness from his right flank, to who governors consider appointing to fill Senate vacancies — when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3 and Trump takes office 17 days later.

Two weeks post-Election Day, both parties are closely watching a handful of House races in which a winner had not yet been decided. On Wednesday, winners emerged in two of those races: Begich ousted Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola as Alaska tallied its ranked-choice ballots late Wednesday. And, hours earlier, final vote tallies in Ohio padded Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s narrow edge in the Toledo-based 9th District.

Balance of power: Those outcomes mean Republicans have won 219 House seats to Democrats’ 213, according to CNN’s projections. The undecided races are California’s 13th and 45th districts, where ballots are still being counted, and Iowa’s 1st District, where GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks leads by about 800 votes ahead of a recount.

However, Trump is poaching the Republicans who hold — or until recently held — three of those seats, to join his still-forming administration. The president-elect could select more GOP House members as he fills out the remainder of his Cabinet and other administration positions.

So far, he has tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Florida Rep. Michael Waltz as his national security adviser and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations. Gaetz immediately resigned his House seat and said he wouldn’t take his seat in January. Waltz and Stefanik remain House members for now.

Their seats, which are all expected to remain in Republican hands, will be filled via special elections — but when those elections will take place, and when the winners will be seated in Congress, is not yet clear.

Read more about how the remaining House races could impact the GOP’s narrow majority in the chamber.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks at a campaign event of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance in Lindale, Georgia, on Friday.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she will chair a new Oversight subcommittee in the next Congress that will work with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

House Oversight Chair James Comer “intends to establish a new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) for the 119th Congress” a source familiar told CNN, confirming that Greene will chair the subcommittee.

House Oversight Chair James Comer and Greene, a staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, recently had a meeting with Ramaswamy and his team to discuss the new subcommittee, another source familiar told CNN.

The creation of the new subcommittee establishes a congressional arm to the broader effort by Trump and his allies to make significant cuts to the federal government. The subpanel will examine the salaries and status of members of the federal civil service and intergovernmental personnel among other oversight measures.

Greene said she plans to investigate waste throughout the federal government and hold hearings.

Trump-Vance transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt released a statement in support of Pete Hegseth after a police report obtained by CNN revealed new details from the sexual assault allegation against President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary.

“This report corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated, and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false. Pete Hegseth is a highly-respected Combat Veteran who will honorably serve our country when he is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, just like he honorably served our country on the battlefield in uniform,” the statement said.

The report does not say that police found the allegations to be false.

CNN previously reported that Hegseth briefed Susie Wiles, incoming White House chief of staff, on the details of the allegations after the initial report.

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, closes a door to a private meeting with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 20.

A majority of Ethics Committee members agreed to have their report on Matt Gaetz finished in time for the panel’s next meeting on December 5, according to a source familiar, as some committee Republicans joined with Democrats on this vote.

Committee Republicans voted against an effort to have the report both finalized and released on December 5, the source said.

This means that members will be voting on whether to release the final report on that date.

There were a number of votes Wednesday during which Republicans unanimously blocked efforts to release the report.

Vice President-elect JD Vance is expected to conduct meetings with key Republican senators today, this time with President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a source familiar.

Vance and attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz conducted meetings with senators Wednesday.

New details on allegation against Hegseth: A police report obtained by CNN shows a California woman told police that Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot.”

The 22-page report, released by the city attorney’s office of Monterey, California, on Wednesday night in response to a public records request, lays out the competing narratives of what happened in new detail – including conflicting accounts of how intoxicated Hegseth and the woman were, and descriptions of video surveillance showing some of their movements that night.

Hegseth told police that their encounter was consensual, and that he had repeatedly made sure the woman “was comfortable with what was going on between the two of them.”

CNN’s Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and Sara Murray contributed reporting to this post.

Customs and Border Patrol agents load migrants into a vehicle after groups of migrants walked into the US from Mexico at Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 5, 2024.

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is gaming out an aggressive strategy toward Latin America that will be a crucial element to plans to deport migrants at large scale, according to two sources involved in transition policy discussions.

During his first term, Trump took a hardline — and at times, scatter shot — approach toward the region, which was largely the source of migration to the United States, including levying consequences, like sanctions, and threatening and imposing tariffs.

In his second term, the region will continue to play a central role in plans to stem the flow of migration and return people who are undocumented in the US. Deportation often hinges on diplomacy — and has been a steep challenge for the US when dealing with countries where there are frosty relations.

This time around, sources involved and close to the transition say they’re better prepared — as they seek ways to engage in a forceful manner and leverage allies, while also floating the possibility of stiff consequences for countries who don’t comply. Taken together, it’s a return to a hardline approach meant to get countries receiving deportees to comply and attempt to curb migration.

The strategy amounts to relying heavily on Mexico, as the US has traditionally done, to control migration to their northern border, bringing back agreements that barred migrants from seeking asylum in the US if they passed through certain countries, and working closely with Panama to stop the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap.

Read more about Trump’s strategy for Latin America here.

Vice President-elect JD Vance speaks on his cellphone as he arrives for private meetings at the Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday.

After rarely being seen in public in the two weeks since he delivered a brief, 46-second victory speech on election night, JD Vance reemerged this week to play one of the most important roles he will be expected to fill as Donald Trump’s No. 2: His point person on Capitol Hill.

The first-term Ohio senator has been tasked by the president-elect to help oversee his policy priorities and ensure lawmakers don’t stand in the way of enacting his agenda, multiple sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. That includes a concerted push to shore up support for Trump’s Cabinet picks, starting with two of the most controversial, both of whom face allegations of sexual misconduct that they deny.

Yesterday, Vance brought former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice for attorney general, to the Hill to meet with the senators who will be crucial during his confirmation process. And today, he’ll do the same for former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to run the Department of Defense.

The effort marks an early test of Vance’s influence in the Senate, a body he joined less than two years ago. His ability to help secure the confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet choices, especially the most unorthodox ones, will be a key measure of the vice president-elect’s political acumen and sway.

Read the full story.

President-elect Donald Trump received his first intelligence briefing since winning the 2024 election last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment or confirm the briefing. It is not clear whether he has received additional briefings since.

The Trump transition team did not respond to request for comment.

More about these briefings: Traditionally, the intelligence community briefs incoming presidents and vice presidents — along with two advisors of their choosing — once they are elected. In 2016, Trump was accompanied by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. It’s not clear who, if anyone, accompanied him last week.

The nominee for each party is also typically offered intelligence briefings during the campaign. Trump told the Daily Mail in August that he was declining those briefings so that he could not be accused of leaking classified information.

Fox anchor Pete Hegseth appears during an interview on "FOX & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios in New York, in August 2019.

A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.

The 22-page report, released by the city attorney’s office of Monterey, California, on Wednesday night in response to a public records request, lays out the competing narratives of what happened in new detail – including conflicting accounts of how intoxicated Hegseth and the woman were, and descriptions of video surveillance showing some of their movements that night.

Hegseth, who President-elect Donald Trump has named as his pick for secretary of defense, told police that their encounter was consensual, and that he had repeatedly made sure the woman “was comfortable with what was going on between the two of them.”

Seven years after the alleged assault, questions over what happened that night could jeopardize Hegseth’s nomination and seem likely to be central in his upcoming confirmation hearing.

Hegseth was not charged with a crime in connection with the allegation. His attorney has acknowledged that Hegseth later entered into a settlement agreement with his accuser that included an undisclosed monetary payment and a confidentiality clause.

Read the full story.

Tulsi Gabbard speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, on October 27.

In 2020, the woman who has become Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top spymaster met with one of the most infamous leakers of all time.

Tulsi Gabbard, then in the midst of a failed bid for the Democratic nomination for president, met with Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in the 1970s and was charged with violations of the Espionage Act. He argued to her that it should be unconstitutional to charge officials who leak classified information to media outlets with espionage.

Gabbard agreed, declaring the practice “insanity.” Later that year, she introduced a bill in the House called the “Protect Brave Whistleblowers Act,” designed to shield people like Ellsberg. She wrote two more bills that same week supporting Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, who were behind two of the biggest US national security leaks of the 21st Century.

Trump’s selection of Gabbard to run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has quickly drawn scrutiny because of her relative inexperience in the intelligence community and her public adoption of positions on Syria and the war in Ukraine that many national security officials see as Russian propaganda.

But where she is perhaps most at odds with the agencies she may soon be tasked with leading is her distrust of broad government surveillance authorities and her support for those willing to expose some of the intelligence community’s most sensitive secrets.

Read more about Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence here.

The House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest rushes past reporters without speaking after his panel met to consider the investigation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, at the Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday.

Republicans on the House Ethics Committee fell in line behind GOP leaders and voted Wednesday not to release the results of their investigation into Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz.

The GOP’s decision to block the findings — against the will of Democrats on the panel — raises major questions about what happens to the highly secretive information that the ethics panel has already collected on Gaetz.

Here’s a recap:

In other news, Trump forged ahead with his presidential transition, announcing a list of loyalists for top roles. On Wednesday he announced the following selections:

Sources told CNN Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary could come Wednesday, but the president-elect has yet to name someone for the position.

Track Trump’s latest selections here.