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PLAYING DEFENSE — In what was likely its last major vote of the year, the House passed a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act this morning, sending the annual Pentagon policy bill to President JOE BIDEN’s desk and lawmakers back to their districts.

The vote was 310-118, with 73 Republicans and 45 Democrats making up the opposition. Intense conservative anger centered on the removal of provisions related to abortion, diversity and transgender troops, as well as the extension of controversial surveillance powers for a few more months. And frustration from the Freedom Caucus over a lack of high-profile conservative wins could linger in the conference. But Democrats ultimately provided a slight majority of the yes votes to clear the two-thirds threshold under which Speaker MIKE JOHNSON brought up the NDAA.

Connor O’Brien runs down some of the notable planks that are in the NDAA, which authorizes an $886 billion budget. They include unlocking $300 million for Ukraine, granting a 5.2% pay bump for military personnel and implementing the U.S.-U.K.-Australia nuclear submarine deal. As Katherine Tully-McManus notes, the bill also includes a provision to transfer power over the Architect of the Capitol away from the White House.

SUPPLEMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS — In the Senate, meantime, negotiators hashing out a Ukraine/immigration policy deal kept up a “flurry of meetings” today, per Burgess Everett, including Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER in Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL’s office. Notably, Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.) responded to Democratic criticisms of “unimaginably cruel” GOP immigration proposals, by telling NBC’s Julie Tsirkin, Rebecca Shabad and Frank Thorp V that “what’s unimaginably cruel are the folks and the images that we see of folks and families sitting in the desert.”

There’s growing chatter about the Senate staying through the weekend and next week as they try to get closer to hammering out an agreement. Schumer wants to keep the Senate in town, and Sen. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.) put a hold on the short-term FAA reauthorization, which could extend the work period another couple of days.

But there’s plenty of GOP skepticism about the timeline, at a minimum: Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.), once a leading immigration reformer on the Hill, warned today that hopes of passing a Ukraine/immigration deal by the end of the year are “delusional,” saying senators will need time to digest any details. Added Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.): “We’re still very far apart, and there’s no deal imminent.”

THE TRUMP FRAUD TRIAL — With more than two months of courtroom arguments concluded in the DONALD TRUMP civil business fraud trial, the fate of the former president’s real estate empire rests in Judge ARTHUR ENGORON’s hands. His decision is expected next month.

But that might not be the final word on the matter, NYT’s Ben Protess, Jonah Bromwich, Kate Christobek and William Rashbaum report. Engoron ruled before the trial began to punish Trump for inflating his net worth, forcing some of his companies to be disbanded.

“But interviews with legal experts and a review of court rulings suggest that the judge may have lacked the authority to dissolve the companies,” the Times finds. An appeals court is taking up Trump’s protest, which “could presage a more thorough assessment of the judge’s decision-making throughout the trial.” (Engoron could also revise his initial judgment.)

The other big piece of the trial, of course, has been an intense conservative campaign questioning the fairness of the court, centering on accusations of political bias against Egnoron’s law clerk. This morning, The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld unmasked the person behind the campaign as Wisconsin man BROCK FREDIN.

Fredin’s X post ultimately made its way around to Trump, who attacked Engoron and the clerk as politically biased and earned himself a gag order as a result. But Klasfeld reports that Fredin has a checkered history: He’s “received three 50-year restraining orders and two criminal convictions resulting in jail time for harassing women.”

Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [email protected].

ALL POLITICS

TWO MORE NOTABLE RETIREMENTS — Rep. DREW FERGUSON (R-Ga.) won’t run for reelection next year, he announced today, per Anthony Adragna. Ferguson is just the latest rising star and would-be House GOP leader to hang it up: He was the conference’s chief deputy whip for four years, and he was thinking about trying to join leadership as majority whip as recently as October.

And Rep. WILEY NICKEL (D-N.C.) won’t run for reelection either, after GOP gerrymandering redrew his district to flip to Republicans, The News & Observer’s Danielle Battaglia reports. Instead, the freshman congressman is eyeing a 2026 Senate run against Republican incumbent THOM TILLIS. Nickel joins fellow Democrats JEFF JACKSON and KATHY MANNING in opting out of reelection bids after redistricting wrested their seats to Republicans.

NY GOP’S BIG GAMBLE — New York Republicans are tapping MAZI MELESA PILIP as their candidate to run against TOM SUOZZI in the tossup special election to replace former Rep. GEORGE SANTOS, NYT’s Nicholas Fandos reports. It’s a bold move to select Pilip over MIKE SAPRAICONE, a former cop who’d been considered a possible frontrunner. Republicans see Pilip as a potential national figure: She’s an Ethiopian-born Israeli military veteran who’s been a vocal supporter of Israel and police. But she’s largely untested, unconnected and unknown, with no public positions on issues like abortion or guns. (She’s also a registered Democrat.)

CONGRESS

MUCK READ — “The Republican leading the probe of Hunter Biden has his own shell company and complicated friends,” by AP’s Brian Slodysko in Tompkinsville, Kentucky: “The AP found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that [Rep. JAMES COMER] co-owns with [a campaign] donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms.”

AFTER THE HILL — Rep. KEVIN McCARTHY (R-Calif.) is interested in working with artificial intelligence, space, futuristic technologies and maybe ELON MUSK once he leaves Congress, he tells Axios’ Mike Allen. But first up, of course, are a memoir, paid speaking gigs and work to keep helping elect Republicans.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

EVAN GERSHKOVICH LATEST — Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN said today that “we want to reach an agreement” with the U.S. on freeing the detained WSJ journalist held on what are widely considered trumped-up charges, WSJ’s Ann Simmons and Kate Vtorygina report. Putin said “it is not easy,” but “there is an ongoing dialogue” about Gershovich and PAUL WHELAN, and “I hope that we will find a solution.”

WHAT MIKE LEE IS CELEBRATING — Lt. RIDGE ALKONIS is returning to the U.S. from his detention in Japan after a fatal car accident, NYT’s Michael Shear reports. Though Biden got personally involved in the sensitive negotiations to get Alkonis back, he’s expected to remain behind bars in the U.S.

DISINFORMATION DIGEST — “State Dept.’s Fight Against Disinformation Comes Under Attack,” by NYT’s Steven Lee Myers: “With its mandate set to expire at the end of next year, the center is now operating under a shroud of uncertainty, even though its supporters say there is no evidence to back the charges against it.”

THE WHITE HOUSE

SHOW ME THE MONEY — Insider’s Mattathias Schwartz obtained several years of HUNTER BIDEN’s tax returns and has published the details from 2018, the filing that prompted his criminal tax charges. What Schwartz finds “does not contradict [the] picture” that prosecutors have laid out, “nor does it offer any smoking-gun evidence of wrongdoing,” he writes. “But it does complicate the attempt by prosecutors to lay out a damning portrait of Biden as a consumer and taxpayer.” The filings also show that Hunter Biden eventually borrowed money from KEVIN MORRIS to pay back the IRS.

GETTING RESULTS — “230,000 more RSV shots on the way after pressure from Biden officials,” by Adam Cancryn, David Lim and Chelsea Cirruzzo

HAPPENING TODAY — In remarks at NIH this afternoon, Biden will announce penalties for many pharmaceutical companies for raising Medicare Part B drug prices too quickly, The Hill’s Brett Samuels previews.

2024 WATCH

BIG HIRE — SARA SCHREIBER will be chief of staff for the Biden campaign, Elena Schneider scooped. She previously was head of America Votes and joins as a voter turnout specialist at a moment when some Democrats are calling on the campaign to build out its state operations more quickly.

CASH DASH — JEFFREY KATZENBERG, RUFUS GIFFORD and MICHAEL PRATT are leading a retreat today for hundreds of top Biden donors, seeking to boost support and calm concerns about Biden’s trailing reelection bid, Bloomberg’s Justin Sink reports.

POLL POSITION — Trump looks unstoppable in the Michigan GOP presidential primary, where he leads with 63% in a new WaPo-Monmouth poll, Scott Clement, Emily Guskin and Dan Balz report. Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS and NIKKI HALEY are each stuck at 13%. … Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is making big plans to blitz Iowa in the first two weeks of January, Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook and Stephanie Lai report.

THE ECONOMY

THE SOFT LANDING — In a surprise, U.S. retail sales rose last month, while the latest new unemployment filing numbers last week fell to their lowest rate in a couple of months, per Bloomberg’s Molly Smith. It’s all further evidence of the economy continuing to avoid a major slowdown.

MEDIAWATCH

ANOTHER LADLE — Punchbowl is acquiring Electo Analytics, a legislative tracking startup, as the news outlet aims to build out its minute congressional coverage, NYT’s Benjamin Mullin reports. With the new acquisition, Punchbowl plans to increase its subscription prices in the new year; the deal lists Punchbowl’s valuation at more than $100 million.

PLAYBOOKERS

IN MEMORIAM — “Mort Engelberg, Producer of Hit Films and Presidential Campaigns, Dies at 86,” by NYT’s Trip Gabriel: “A celebrated ‘advance man’ — responsible for logistics and camera-ready moments in campaigns — he forged a lasting bond with Bill Clinton.”

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the Manatos & Manatos 40th-anniversary party at the new Limani on the Wharf last night: Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America Elpidophoros, Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Tom Daschle, Toria Nuland, Gen. Andrew Poppas, John Negroponte, Marc Grossman, Anita McBride, Charity Wallace, Melinda Medlin, Ed and Marie Royce, U.S. Ambassador to China Nick Burns and Greek Ambassador Ekaterini Nassika.

— SPOTTED at the Hispanic Lobbyists Association’s holiday reception at the UPS townhouse last night: Reps. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), John Duarte (R-Calif.), Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.), Lucia Alonzo, Maria Luisa Boyce, Erica Romero, Norberto Salinas, Omar Franco, Manuel Bonilla, Carlos Becerra, Art Motta, Javier Gamboa, Osiris Morel and Liz Lopez.

— SPOTTED at an advance screening of “The Color Purple” and Q&A last night at the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Blitz Bazawule, Kevin Young, Reps. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas) and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Anita Dunn, Michael Leach, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Michel Martin and Jake Tapper.

— SPOTTED at the Foreign Policy for America holiday party Tuesday night: Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Jon Finer, Thomas Countryman, Salem Mariam, Tod Sedgwick and Christy Brown, Regina Montoya, Elisa Massimino, Dafna Rand, Nelson Cunningham, Benjamin Haas, Francisco Bencosme and Rufus Gifford.

MEDIA MOVES — WaPo is losing Robert Barnes and Dave Clarke. Barnes, a veteran Supreme Court reporter, is retiring at the end of the year, to be replaced by Ann Marimow. Clarke, a political editor, is leaving his role as head of the 202 Newsletters.

TRANSITIONS — Virginia Kase Solomón will be the next president and CEO of Common Cause. She currently is CEO of the League of Women Voters. … Andrea Prasow will be the next executive director of Freedom Now. She most recently was executive director of the Freedom Initiative, and is a Human Rights Watch alum. …

… Meghan Cieslak is joining the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors as chief comms and marketing officer. She most recently was senior director of comms and marketing at the International Foodservice Distributors Association. … Katherine Gillespie will be deputy legal and advocacy director at Maryland Legal Aid. She previously was acting director of federal policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

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