| | |  | BY ANKUSH KHARDORI | With help from Ari Hawkins
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Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) speaks alongside Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and co-chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). | Pool photo by Jim Lo Scalzo | HOT DOC — The executive summary of the January 6 committee report, released earlier this week , has already provided plenty of fodder for discussion and analysis. But Thursday’s release of the full, final report on the historic, 18-month investigation into the siege of the U.S. Capitol and the role of former President Donald Trump in the day’s events is the week’s marquee event, marking the culmination of the committee’s landmark inquiry. It is perhaps the year’s most hotly anticipated document among the political class in Washington, many of whom will now be looking for ways to amplify or discredit the committee’s findings. The select committee may be wrapping up its official work, but the panel’s broader project — an effort to create a widely accepted narrative about what led to the Capitol riot and to facilitate political and legal accountability for the most powerful actors involved — is far from over. Its success, which remains uncertain, is about to move beyond the committee’s control after the report is released. What comes next? At the Justice Department, prosecutors will be reviewing the committee’s work and investigative material closely, but no one should expect them simply to rubber stamp the committee’s findings and to indict Trump or anyone else based on the committee’s say-so. Prosecutors now working under the supervision of special counsel Jack Smith should be most interested in the actual evidence uncovered by the committee — not the panel’s characterization or summaries of it — and will exercise independent legal and professional judgment about whether and to what extent criminal charges are warranted against Trump. If prosecutors ultimately choose to seek an indictment of the former president, which is far from clear, they would be free to adopt different charging theories or permutations of the committee’s various theories of criminal liability. Meanwhile, the media across the spectrum will be poring over the committee’s report and evidence in the weeks ahead. That scrutiny will certainly include mainstream outlets looking for unreported news and insights concerning the events leading up to January 6. But it is also likely to include conservative news outlets that are ideologically aligned with Trump and the Republican party that will be focused on ways to undermine the findings by identifying supposed gaps or inconsistencies in the committee’s investigative record or arguable flaws in the committee’s legal and factual analysis. Republican politicians and partisans will also be rummaging through the report and the raw material to further their own agendas. One of them is protecting Trump. The former president’s supporters on the right will likely be looking to exculpate him by claiming that the committee overlooked or misrepresented evidence in the service of an anti-Trump narrative. Some of them, like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, are well practiced in this often tendentious work (similar political counter-offensives took place throughout the Mueller investigation and Trump’s two impeachment proceedings) and have already made clear that they intend to use their oversight power to bolster the party’s political prospects. Meanwhile, in the background, a quieter contingent of Trump skeptics and potential primary opponents are likely to claim that the committee’s findings are just the latest reason for the party to move on from the former president and to select a new standard bearer heading into 2024. So while the select committee may be finishing its work and ending the year with a bang, the issue remains unsettled. The effects of the panel’s work — and the political and legal fallout — are likely to extend well into 2023, and perhaps beyond. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Contact tonight’s author at ankush.khardori@gmail.com . We’re compiling a list of the year’s biggest stories for a year-end issue. Tell us what you think were the most important or interesting news stories of 2022 — and why. Let us know if we can include your name and hometown. Submit a response to nightly@politico.com for a chance to be featured in the newsletter later this week. We’ll be off from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 for the holidays. Nightly will resume its regular programming on Jan. 3.
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| | A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We’re kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY . | | | | | | | THE SANTOS SAGA — Making his first public comments on the situation, incoming House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said lawmakers need answers from Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) after a report in The New York Times called into question large portions of his life story, writes Anthony Adragna. Speaking at an event at the DCCC, Jeffries said Santos "appears to be in the witness protection program" and said the newly-elected congressman is “hiding from legitimate questions that his constituents are asking.” As to whether Republicans should allow him to be seated, Jeffries said that’s a question for House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has not commented on the situation. The comments come after the reporting suggested Santos fabricated large portions of his life story, such as his work and education history, in a piece earlier this week. An attorney for Santos responded to the article without directly refuting any of the allegations — and using a fake quote from Winston Churchill. Santos, making his second bid for a Long Island-based House seat, defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by eight points in the midterms, flipping a seat previously held by Democrats. Santos is the first openly gay, non-incumbent member of the GOP elected to Congress.
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| — U.S. announces Patriot missiles for Ukraine: The U.S. announced billions of dollars in additional weapons for Kyiv as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington today to meet with President Joe Biden and other senior U.S. officials at the White House. The $1.85 billion package includes the first-ever transfer of a Patriot missile defense system , designed to shoot down missiles and aircraft, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, which are used to convert aerial munitions into smart bombs. The package, announced by the State Department, also includes ammunition, mortars, armored vehicles and more. — Trump lawyers target Adult Survivors Act to invalidate rape lawsuit: A lawyer for Trump said today he will try to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman alleging the former president raped her in the 1990s by arguing New York’s Adult Survivors Act is unconstitutional, but a judge suggested he is not inclined to throw out the case. Lawyers appeared in federal court in Manhattan in a lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a writer who says that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store decades ago. She brought a new suit against Trump after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, which gives victims of sexual assault two years to sue over past assaults that would previously have been barred by the statute of limitations. — Trump’s income taxes were often paltry: Trump repeatedly paid little or nothing in federal income taxes between 2015 and 2020 despite reporting millions in earnings, according to documents released Tuesday night by House Democrats said Trump frequently made tens of millions of dollars annually during that period. But he was able to whittle away his tax bill by claiming steep business losses that offset that income. In 2016, he paid $750. The following year he again paid just $750. In 2020, he paid nothing, and though the IRS typically audits every president, Democrats say the agency did not begin vetting Trump’s filings until they began asking about them in 2019.
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| | POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023. | | | | | | | | 
People protest in solidarity with the ongoing demonstrations in Iran and against the Islamic Republic's regime in front of the Brandenburg Gate on December 10, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. | Omer Messinger/Getty Images | CHRONICLING IRAN — As the government of Iran escalates its crackdown on protesters and the free press, underground networks of civilian dissidents are illuminating the regime’s exploits from inside the country’s borders, Ari Hawkins reports for Nightly. The world knows the suspicious circumstances of the death of Mahsa Amini because of IranWire. The outlet captured photographs after the 22-year-old Iranian was taken by the country’s morality police. Images of her corpse – bloated and discolored from suspected beatings – were sent to the publication by an Iranian civilian with access to the hospital where Amini would later die from her injuries. The publication, which is registered in the United Kingdom but operates in countries throughout the Middle East and Asia, is the publishing arm of a complex network of more than 6,000 civilian journalists – political dissidents who live on the ground in Iran and help inform coverage from inside its borders. They include professionals like healthcare workers, political prisoners and religious minorities that share a desire to combat the curtailment of speech. “I don’t think that at any point in the modern history of Iran, have we seen such repression in journalism and the press in the country,” said Maziar Bahari , an Iranian-Canadian journalist who was incarcerated by the government of Iran in 2009. He now serves as editor in chief of IranWire, which has provided on-the-ground coverage of Iran from outside of the country since 2013. “Because of the way we broke the story of Mahsa Amini and because it was journalism that led to the protests, the government really sees the press as the main culprit,” Bahari said in an interview with Nightly. In fact, a total of 475 people have been killed by Iranian intelligence forces while another 18,000 are detained since September. 62 journalists are confirmed to be among those detained as of this month and the international human rights group the Committee to Protect Journalists placed the country as the world’s top jailer of reporters. The group also warns that subtle measures of suppression in the country have intensified like website-blockings and temporary internet bans. The publication is one of multiple civilian journalist networks operating in Iran despite the risk to themselves and the civilians who assist in their mission. 1500Tasvir, another protesting network stealthily operating in Iran has grown to nearly 2 million Instagram followers and versions of the operation exist in countries around the world. The evasions are a defiant response to crackdowns against the press which have intensified like at no point in modern Iran. That includes the so-called 2009 Green Movement where protests against the sham presidential election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was met with violence and killings from Iranian security forces. “The scores of journalists detained over three months in Iran not only breaks 30-year records in terms of scale but serve as a reminder of what’s at stake worldwide when a country falls into an information black hole,” said Sherif Mansour, who oversees Middle East and North African operations at CJP. “It’s imperative that world leaders continue to press for accountability in order to stop the cruel, abusive, detentions of journalists, as well as any future retaliation against them, including possible execution or forced confessions.”
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1.5 million The projected size of Russia’s army after an ambitious plan announced today by Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to increase the military’s size from a force of 1 million to 1.5 million. The move comes amidst Russia continuing to lose ground in Ukraine and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House, where the U.S. announced more funding for Ukrainian missiles. |
| | | MASTODON MANIA — As the once-niche alternative to Twitter rises in popularity, Mastodon has also faced rising costs, legal challenges and disagreements over its future and mission. The application, which was created by Rodti Macleary as a labor of love, has accumulated more than 67,000 active users as of this week, forcing it to grapple with what has been a consistent source of tension between users and within the company – whether Mastodon should retain it’s unique, open-source-style platform that appealed to a small audience or jump on its newfound notoriety and widen its appeal to function more like Twitter and other companies in Big Tech. Read Amanda Hoover ’s reporting for WIRED.
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, center, is escorted from a Corrections Department van as he arrives at the Magistrate Court building for a hearing, in Nassau, Bahamas today. Bankman-Fried agreed to be extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S. to face criminal charges alleging that he oversaw a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme through his crypto exchange FTX, his spokesperson said. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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