With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

JUST POSTED —A major scoop from Heidi Przybyla, POLITICO’s national investigative correspondent: “Longtime judicial activist LEONARD LEO appears to have helped facilitate the sale of former White House senior adviser KELLYANNE CONWAY’s polling company in 2017 — as she was playing a key role in advocating for Leo’s handpicked list of Supreme Court candidates, according to previously unreported financial documents reviewed by government ethics and finance experts.”

SEARCHING FOR A SANTOS CLAUSE — Democrats are scouring the record of Rep.-elect GEORGE SANTOS to determine their next steps following an extraordinary New York Times investigation of the incoming Republican from Long Island that revealed a history of seemingly fraudulent claims.

Democrats are pondering how far to go in their condemnation. Should he be referred to the House Ethics Committee? (Almost certainly.) Should they call for his resignation before he is sworn in? (Some say yes.) Should they call for his expulsion after he’s sworn in? (Probably, but with the GOP in charge it won’t work.) Or should they try to prevent him from being sworn in at all?

Among those looking to prevent Santos from being seated is embattled New York state Democratic chair JAY JACOBS, the NYT reports in a follow-up story, “pending an investigation” into his personal claims and questionable financial filings.

One key Democrat, however, tells Playbook that contesting the election should be off the table: Santos’s former opponent.

“I will not play any role in overturning the election results,” said ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, who lost to Santos by eight points in November. “It was egregious when it happened two years ago, and I will not play any role in that. These are all good questions, but they are best investigated by the Ethics Committee, the FEC and U.S. attorney’s office.”

Now, if the dispute over seating Santos concerned the counting of votes, Zimmerman’s opinion would be final. But the rules of the House also allow fellow members-elect to object on the first day of the new Congress to prevent a potential colleague from taking the oath. (For procedure nerds, here’s the fine print.)

We’re told it’s possible that a rogue Democrat could lodge such an objection. But party leaders are not keen on the idea, a leadership official said: With no Republican yet questioning Santos’s fitness to serve, any attempt to disqualify him would almost certainly fail, the thinking goes, and the threat would serve to unify Republicans on a day when the party will be torn over House GOP Leader KEVIN McCARTHY’s bid for speaker.

Incoming Democratic leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES condemned Santos in a statement to Playbook but did not specify a plan for holding him accountable. “George Santos is a woefully unqualified Extreme MAGA Republican who is clearly unfit to serve,” Jeffries said. “If Mr. Santos is indicative of what we can expect from the new Republican Congress, the American people are in for a rough ride.”

Rather than a Jan. 3 floor showdown, Democrats are likely to pursue more promising avenues of accountability. Party aides and lawyers are scrubbing Santos’s record to understand whether the 34-year-old is simply a fabulist or whether he has engaged in potential criminal conduct or ethical violations. His personal financial disclosures, which showed an unusual jump in income this year and did not include details of assets he publicly claimed to possess (such as two mansions), are of particular interest.

Also in doubt: 

— whether he received degrees from Baruch College or NYU

— whether he worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs

— whether he ran Friends of Pets United, which he has described as “an animal rescue operation, which was able to effectively rescue 2400 dogs and 280 cats”

— whether he oversaw an $80 million portfolio and earned a $750,000 salary at “the Devolder Organization”

— whether four of his company’s employees were murdered at the Pulse nightclub in 2016, as he once claimed in a radio interview

— whether he actually lives where he is registered to vote (NYT: “a person at that address said on Sunday that she was not familiar with him”)

The Democratic debate about what’s next stands apart from the mounting questions about why it even came to this. How had both parties failed so miserably to properly vet Santos, reporters wondered Monday? Dem and GOP operatives, meanwhile, wondered the same about the press. But the signs were all there.

The Cook Political Report smelled something fishy about the race back in the fall, telling subscribers that GOP insiders “bitterly regard this race as a recruitment failure” and quoting a Republican operative who was “wary of [Santos’] purported business background” saying, “we're not touching him with a 10-foot pole.”

The North Shore Leader, a small Long Island publication, was also onto him. “He boasts like an insecure child—but he's most likely just a fabulist—a fake,” the paper’s right-leaning editorial page wrote in an endorsement of Zimmerman. A later article quoted a “Republican leader,” who asked, "Are we being played as extras in 'The Talented Mr Santos'?”

As for Republicans, their silence has been notable. McCarthy has not publicly addressed any aspect of the Santos drama as he struggles to become speaker. Santos himself has not disputed any of the particulars reported by the Times; his lawyer instead released a statement broadly accusing the paper of “smear[ing] his good name with these defamatory allegations.” (It ended with a quote erroneously attributed to WINSTON CHURCHILL.)

Despite the questions raised in the press, Santos was embraced in some corners of the GOP. He made the NRCC’s list of Young Guns, an important party imprimatur that reflects having “a path to victory on Election Day,” and the group spent $103,000 on the race in September.

The imperatives for the GOP generally and McCarthy specifically are not difficult to parse, as the Times notes: “With a razor-thin majority, Republicans have few reasons for challenging or investigating Mr. Santos, and many for defending him. If Mr. Santos were to resign, there is no guarantee that a Republican would win a special election to fill his seat.”

Santos is no dummy. On Sunday night, after the Times told him they were about to publish, he tweeted his support for McCarthy’s speaker bid for the first time.

Good Tuesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Read this old bio of Santos and drop us a line if anything sounds fishy to you: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

THE OMNIBUS THAT ALMOST WASN’T — Congressional appropriators filed a 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion omnibus appropriations bill shortly after 1:30 a.m. this morning following hours of delay. The holdup? A nasty intraparty spat over the future location of the FBI headquarters briefly stalled a bipartisan $1.7 trillion spending deal — one that pitted outgoing House Majority Leader STENY HOYER against Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.).

The clash centered on legislative language that could determine whether the federal megaproject is sited in Maryland or Virginia, as our colleagues Jordain Carney, Marianne LeVine, Caitlin Emma and Sarah Ferris first reported yesterday. Hoyer wants the decision criteria rewritten to favor Prince George’s County, Md., while Warner wants to keep the status quo which would favor a site in Springfield, Va.

The dispute threatened to spin out of control Monday, with House Democrats signaling they were ready to bring racial equity into debate. They circulated a letter from Black leaders, including the Rev. AL SHARPTON, urging the Biden administration to favor majority-Black Prince George’s County in order to “bring economic growth and development to this community that has been historically underserved,” and a House official told us last night that some members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus were preparing to wade into the fray.

But an 11th-hour deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER resolved the dispute overnight and kept Congress on track to clear the spending bill before a Friday shutdown deadline. Under the accord, federal officials will be required to conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with relevant lawmakers in order to “further consider perspectives related to mission requirements, sustainable siting and equity.”

Meanwhile … Republicans continue to be at each other’s throats about whether Senate Republicans should have negotiated a spending deal at all.

In the House, Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas) and 12 other conservatives signed and circulated a letter late last night vowing to tank any priorities of the GOP senators who backed the omnibus deal. Meanwhile, Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) tweeted a midnight threat to grind the Senate’s gears, saying leaders “should not assume that every senator will agree to facilitate their efforts to ram this through.”

Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL is defending the agreement as a victory for conservatives. His office blasted out a timeline of all the instances where the Kentucky Republican vowed he would refuse to back an increase in spending for “liberal domestic priorities” despite Democratic demands of parity between defense and nondefense spending. They argue the deal caters to those demands, splitting $858 billion in defense vs. $772 billion in domestic.

What’s in, per Caitlin & Co. … $45 billion for Ukraine … nearly $40 billion in disaster aid for storm and wildfire recovery … a rewrite of the Electoral Count Act … legislation to ban TikTok on government phones

What’s out … pandemic aid … an extension of the enhanced Child Tax Credit … cannabis banking legislation … R&D tax credit fix … legislation narrowing the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine

PHOTO OF THE DAY

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

J6 COMMITTEE NEWS ROUNDUP — Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu on how the Jan. 6 committee’s big reveal hasn’t happened yet … Maggie Haberman’s analysis … POLITICO and NYT on how DOJ sees the criminal referral … NBC on how the executive summary of the committee’s report leaves out the issue of security failures … NBC on IVANKA TRUMP, RUDY GIULIANI and more … NYT and Bloomberg on the political implications for Trump … Trump’s response … CNN on McConnell’s response and some Senate GOP dissent … Bloomberg on how the TONY ORNATO/CASSIDY HUTCHINSON mystery is still unresolved … WSJ on HOPE HICKS

ALL POLITICS

2024 WATCH — The Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling isn’t going away as a major force in American politics: It’s expected to shape much of the 2024 presidential race, Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meridith McGraw report this morning. Anti-abortion groups likely won’t endorse any Republican who falls short of promising a federal abortion ban — and they’ve been muted on Trump and Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS so far. “Conservative groups that spent tens of millions boosting abortion opponents in the midterms are now planning to dole out even more on the fight for the presidency.”

ON WISCONSIN — In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert dives into the shifting demographics of Wisconsin’s politics: In the midterms, Democrats’ significant gains among suburbanites kept rolling as Republicans continued to explode their rural numbers. Since the SCOTT WALKER era, the Milwaukee and Madison suburbs have seen massive, sometimes 30-point shifts to the left. (Concerns about crime or inflation didn’t staunch the GOP bleeding.) But some smaller blue cities, like Kenosha and Beloit, saw Dem margins fall this year, and the red wave kept rising in small towns. That means GOP Sen. RON JOHNSON, for one, won reelection with a very different coalition than in 2016.

“[T]he big question for Republicans after this election is whether their rural inroads can keep pace with their suburban erosion, especially when the suburbs are growing more in population,” Gilbert writes.

WHITHER ABRAMS — Georgia Democrat STACEY ABRAMS’ losing gubernatorial campaign is more than $1 million in debt, Axios’ Emma Hurt reports. Though the campaign raised $100 million, it struggled with fundraising in the final stretch as it became clear that Abrams would lose. “[M]oney became so tight that most of the 180 full-time staffers were given an abrupt paycheck cutoff date — just a week after the November election. ‘People have told me they have no idea how they’re going to pay their rent in January,’ one former staffer told Axios. ‘It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up.’”

QUESTIONING THE VOTE — A judge dismissed eight allegations by Arizona Republican KARI LAKE of election malfeasance in her gubernatorial loss, but allowed two others to go forward — setting up a two-day trial in short order in which Gov.-elect KATIE HOBBS will have to testify. “Lake must show at trial that [Maricopa C]ounty’s printer malfunctions were intentionally rigged to affect the election results, and that the actions ‘did actually affect the outcome,’” reports the Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern. (That’s quite a high bar to clear.)

THE WHITE HOUSE

BIDEN VS. BIBI — Faced with a far-right government assuming power in Israel, the Biden administration is planning to hold PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU personally accountable for any extreme moves by his government, Nahal Toosi reports this morning. That’s how the White House plans to walk the tightrope between a crucial Middle Eastern ally and a Democratic constituency that hates Netanyahu’s coalition. “Netanyahu is the person U.S. officials will publicly turn to, refer to and rely upon for any remotely serious talks on issues ranging from Israeli settlements in the West Bank to Israel’s relations with Arab states,” she writes.

HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS — DIANE FOLEY, mother of the late JAMES FOLEY, has become a prominent advocate for Americans detained abroad, helping elevate their fates into a top foreign policy issue for three White Houses, NYT’s Peter Baker reports. The Biden administration has found securing the release of American detainees to be a bigger priority than it expected; national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN goes on the record to praise Diane Foley. And the decision matrix has also changed: “Biden administration officials have privately concluded that the downsides are not as great as feared, and that if anything, they should have been more aggressive about making trades earlier in their tenure.”

“Biden Condemns ‘Violent Venom’ of Antisemitism at Hanukkah Event,” Bloomberg

CONGRESS

OK GO — A push by House Republicans to express public support for KEVIN McCARTHY’s speakership bid this weekend was orchestrated in part by his office and allies, Olivia Beavers reports in Congress Minutes. JEFF MILLER, ARTHUR SCHWARTZ and DAN CONSTON were involved with reaching out to members and other pro-McCarthy efforts, urging members of the conference to declare themselves OK (“Only Kevin”). “They want a public show of support amid headlines that his speakership is imperiled, and they want to project strength,” Olivia writes. “But it also shows they are playing defense.”

— The expected incoming committee chairs sent a Dear Colleague letter Monday urging House Republicans to support McCarthy so they can get to work on their panels, the Washington Examiner’s Juliegrace Brufke reports.

COUNT RAND IN — Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) endorsed the Electoral Count Act reform in a Courier Journal op-ed, framing it in part as a bulwark against the left: “The Electoral College is worth saving but, without reform, I fear the calls for abolishing the Electoral College might succeed.”

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) went on offense against Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.) after the latter made fun of Greene. The two have diverged recently over support for McCarthy. “She gladly takes our $$$,” the Georgian tweeted, “but when she’s been asked: Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite.”

Boebert, for her part,tells The Daily Caller’s James Lynch and Henry Rodgers that she indeed supports Trump but is tired of being lumped together with Greene: “I’ve been asked to explain MTG’s belief in Jewish space lasers, why she showed up to a white supremacist’s conference, and now why she’s blindly following Kevin McCarthy and I’m not going to go there.”

“Tech Companies Make Final Push to Head Off Tougher Regulation,” WSJ

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS delayed the end of the Title 42 border policy, likely granting a measure of relief to a Biden administration that has been fearing a migrant surge — even though Democrats loathe the policy. Roberts on Monday imposed a stay on a ruling that would have required the administration to end Title 42 by Wednesday; he told DOJ to respond to Republican-led states’ petition by tonight. The controversial Trump-era order allows officials to expel migrants quickly, without due process, due to the Covid public health emergency. More from CNN

— The step back: A new Harvard Law Review analysis warns that the Supreme Court “has rapidly been accumulating power at the expense of every other part of the government” — biasing control toward itself more than toward any other group, NYT’s Adam Liptak reports. Roberts’ “imperial” high court has increasingly limited the abilities of the executive branch to implement policy and overruled lower courts, this paper and others find.

MEDIAWATCH 

WAPO FALLOUT — After publisher FRED RYAN’s shock announcement that more layoffs would be coming to WaPo, the newsroom staff has both unified against him and been riven by internal fractures and worries, The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies reports. Union membership is growing. And staffers are wondering how much power executive editor SALLY BUZBEE really has relative to Ryan: “The way he rolled out the layoff info has been very humiliating for Sally,” one says. “This has caused the newsroom staff to seriously question whether she has any influence or control over what’s going on, even if we’re rooting for her.”

— Ryan bombshell’s followed a meeting this month with JEFF BEZOS in Seattle, which Buzbee did not attend, Semafor’s Max Tani reports. Now speculation is rising that Bezos is less interested in the Post than he used to be.

MUSK READS

VOX POPULI — ELON MUSK’s unscientific Twitter poll asking whether he should step down as head of Twitter ended with a fairly resounding condemnation, as 58% of respondents said yes. Musk had said he would abide by the results, but has been mostly silent since — aside from vowing that Twitter Blue subscribers would become the only people eligible to vote in polls on policy changes.

“Here’s who Elon Musk could pick to be Twitter’s next CEO,” CNN

“Tech founders ❤️ Elon,” Insider

James Comey made sure to get a Christmas tree that’s taller than he is.

Antony Blinken toasted Benjamin Hall, the Fox News reporter injured in Ukraine, and his family at a State Department holiday reception for the press Monday evening.

Mike Pencetweeted the wrong kind of menorah.

IN MEMORIAM — “Veteran CNN investigative journalist Drew Griffin dead at 60,” by CNN’s Matt Lait and Samira Jafari: “A gifted storyteller, Griffin had a well-earned reputation for holding powerful people and institutions accountable. … His reporting had been honored with some of journalism’s most prestigious awards – Emmys, Peabodys, and Murrows among them. … He kept his [cancer] private from most of his co-workers and had been reporting up until the day he passed.”

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — American Bridge 21st century is tapping Pat Dennis as the organization’s next president. He currently is VP of research, and will move up to succeed Jessica Floyd.

TRANSITIONS — Caty Payette will be comms director for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). She most recently was comms director for Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). … Rory Jacobson will be senior adviser for deployment at the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. He is taking leave from his role as deputy director of policy at Carbon180. … Tyler O’Connor will return to Crowell & Moring as a partner in its energy and government affairs practices. He most recently was energy counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. …

… ​​Lauren Gaydos is now a director at the Glen Echo Group. She previously was public relations manager at NTCA — The Rural Broadband Association. … Kaj Gumbs is now an associate at The Ferguson Group. He previously was a law clerk for Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas and is a G.K. Butterfield alum.

ENGAGED — Isaac Rappoport, digital campaign services director at the Democratic Governors Association, and Haley Hinkle, policy counsel at Fairplay, got engaged Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial. They met in student government at Northwestern University. Pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: AP’s Mary Clare Jalonick … PBS’ Paula Kerger … Sonny Perdue … HuffPost’s Jen Bendery … Murray Waas ... Susan Neely of the American Council of Life Insurers … POLITICO’s John Yearwood, Francis Chung and Ariel Braunstein … E&E News’ Tyler Brady … Mandi Rogers Thorpe … Lauren Milnes of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-N.Y.) office … Hannah Thoburn of Senate Foreign Relations … Amelia Burns … Anderson Heiman of Atlassian … Hilary Nachem Loewenstein of Bully Pulpit Interactive … Alison Williams of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office … Brooke Goldstein of the Lawfare Project … former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) … former Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.) … Ryan Davis of Covington & Burling … Catherine Pino of D&P Creative Strategies … Maya Menchis … Louise Linton

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