Day 1770: "Defective."

1/ A federal judge ruled that interim U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed and dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, writing that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment […] must be set aside.” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said Halligan had no authority to present either case to a grand jury, so all actions she took, including securing both indictments, were void. The Justice Department said it would appeal, while the White House called the ruling “a technical” decision and insisted Halligan was “legally appointed.” Currie dismissed the cases without prejudice but noted the statute of limitations on Comey’s charges has now expired. The ruling followed Trump’s removal of the prior interim U.S. attorney and his installation of Halligan, who acted alone in both grand jury presentations despite having no prosecutorial experience. (CNN / Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / Politico / NPR / Washington Post / New York Times / ABC News / Axios / Bloomberg / NBC News)

2/ The Pentagon opened an investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly after “serious allegations of misconduct” he appeared in a video reminding service members they can refuse illegal orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth linked the review to the video and said Kelly, as a retired Navy officer, remains subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and could be recalled for court martial or face administrative action. Trump had already accused Kelly and the five other Democrats in the video of “seditious behavior” and said their statements were “punishable by DEATH.” Kelly, meanwhile, rejected the inquiry, saying: “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work.” (ABC News / NPR / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / Politico / New York Times / CNN / NBC News / Axios)

3/ Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allowed Texas to use its newly drawn congressional map for the 2026 elections, pausing a lower court order that blocked the plan as a likely racial gerrymander. The stay followed an emergency appeal filed by Texas, arguing the ruling arrived too close to the Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline and would disrupt an election cycle already underway. The lower court’s 2-1 decision had ordered the state to revert to its 2021 map after finding “substantial evidence” that lawmakers, responding to a Justice Department letter, drew the new lines based on race. The map, adopted after Trump urged mid-decade redistricting, was designed to add five Republican-leaning seats. (Politico / CNN / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News / New York Times)

4/ The Justice Department renewed its request for two Manhattan federal judges to unseal grand jury materials from the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, citing the newly enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the law requires the department to release grand jury and discovery records within 30 days of Trump signing it, and they asked for expedited rulings. The filings said the law overrides earlier court orders that kept the transcripts sealed, though the department said it could redact victim-identifying information. Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer had rejected similar requests this summer, ruling that grand jury secrecy rules blocked the release and that the material added little to what the government already holds. Bondi made a similar request Friday in Florida, where a judge had also denied an earlier bid to unseal Epstein records. (Associated Press / New York Times)

5/ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally ordered the CDC to change its website so it no longer endorses its longstanding statement that vaccines do not cause autism. The page now keeps that line only due to an agreement with Sen. Bill Cassidy and adds that the claim is “not evidence-based,” even though Kennedy acknowledged large studies of the MMR vaccine and thimerosal found no link. Public health officials and major medical groups said more than 40 studies involving over 5.6 million children show no connection and warned the edits could mislead parents. Cassidy criticized the change and said childhood vaccines are safe and do not cause autism. (Politico / The Guardian / The Hill / New York Times)

6/ U.S. and Ukrainian officials rewrote Trump’s 28-point peace plan, cutting it to about 19 points and softening provisions that mirrored long-standing Kremlin demands and appeared be influenced by Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine kept “extremely sensitive” items on the table, including prisoner releases and the return of abducted children, while reserving all territorial questions for direct talks with Trump. The White House said the revised draft now meets Ukraine’s core security needs through a strengthened but still undefined guarantee modeled on NATO’s Article 5. European governments pushed changes that remove territorial concessions, drop limits on NATO expansion, raise any troop cap to 800,000, and direct frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. Russia, not included in the talks, said the original 28-point version could form the basis of a settlement and dismissed the reported European counterproposal as “unconstructive.” (NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / Axios / Washington Post)

✨ WELL, THAT’S FANTASTIC. 7/ In a reversal, the Coast Guard reinstated swastikas and nooses as prohibited hate symbols after previously calling them “potentially divisive.” (CNN / Washington Post)

poll/ 58% of Americans said prices are still rising and 60% felt that Trump makes the economy sound better than it really is. 68% disapprove of his handling of inflation, and his ratings on the economy and inflation fell to their lowest levels of the year at 36%. (CBS News)

poll/ 70% of Latinos disapprove of Trump’s job performance and 78% say his policies hurt Hispanics. 65% disapproved of his handling of immigration, and 61% said his economic policies made conditions worse. 68% said the situation of U.S. Hispanics had worsened in the past year and 52% worried that they or someone close could be deported. (Pew Research Centers)

poll/ 45% of Americans say groceries are “the most challenging” to afford, followed by housing (38%), health care (34%), and utility bills (31%). (Politico)

✏️ Notables.

• U.N. climate negotiations in Brazil ended without any plan to phase out fossil fuels, as countries approved an agreement that sidestepped direct language on coal, oil and gas. Instead, the deal focused on expanding adaptation efforts, including a call to seek at least triple the finance available to vulnerable countries by 2035 and a new “Global Implementation Accelerator” for national climate plans. More than 80 countries, including Brazil and the European Union, had pushed for a roadmap to cut fossil fuel use, but Saudi Arabia, Russia and several developing nations blocked the proposal. (Washington Post / CNN / New York Times / The Guardian / Politico / Associated Press / Axios)

• The North Dakota Supreme Court reinstated the state’s near-total abortion ban after ruling that only three justices, not the four required, agreed the law was unconstitutional. The decision restores a 2023 statute that makes abortion a felony for doctors except to protect a woman’s life or health or in limited rape and incest cases during the first six weeks. (Reuters / New York Times)

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would resign from Congress on Jan. 5 after splitting with Trump over her push to force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Greene said she stepped down to avoid a primary backed by Trump, who had called her a “traitor” and withdrew his endorsement after she joined Democrats to force a vote on the files. Trump welcomed her decision, saying it was “great news for the country.” Greene’s departure will temporarily narrow the Republican House majority, though her Georgia district is expected to remain in Republican hands. She framed her exit as a response to growing attacks from Trump and said she refused to be a “battered wife” in a fight she argued Republicans were poised to lose in the 2026 midterms. (New York Times / Associated Press / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / ABC News / NBC News / Politico)

• New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani reaffirmed that he still viewed Trump as a “fascist” and a “despot,” days after their unexpectedly cordial Oval Office meeting. Trump had spent months calling Mamdani a “communist lunatic” and threatening to cut federal funds or send troops to New York, while Mamdani had labeled Trump a despot on the campaign trail. Instead, the two focused on affordability, with Trump praising Mamdani’s housing ideas and saying he would “cheer” for the incoming mayor. Mamdani said the meeting was a chance to push cost-of-living issues important to New Yorkers. He added that he would keep working with the administration but wouldn’t retreat from his public disagreements with the president. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / Axios / The Guardian / ABC News / USA Today)

• DOGE was quietly dissolved eight months before its mandate ended. The Office of Personnel Management said the department “doesn’t exist” and that DOGE’s functions had shifted to other offices. (Reuters / The Verge / The Guardian)

• X’s new location tool showed that several large MAGA-branded accounts were based overseas. Users found accounts promoting Trump, including ones with hundreds of thousands of followers, listed in regions such as Eastern Europe, Thailand, Nigeria and Bangladesh. (NBC News / New York Times)

⏭️ Notably Next: The 2026 midterms are in 344 days.