Pete Marocco, a former Trump administration official who was reportedly caught on camera inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is now working with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition on national security personnel matters, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Marocco, who drew internal fire when he worked in numerousagencies in the Trump administration and more recently was a conservative activist in Dallas, has been seen at the transition’s Florida headquarters working on hiring, including for the State Department, according to two of the people who saw him. One of the people said he was interviewing candidates this week.

Last month, the online sleuth group Sedition Hunters identified Marocco and his wife Merritt’s alleged presence inside and outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 using social media posts, video analysis and facial recognition software. Asked about the allegation by D Magazine, Marocco didn’t address whether he had been at the Capitol, instead calling it “petty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks.” Neither Marocco nor his wife have been charged.

Marocco didn’t respond to requests for comment. Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Marocco’s “valuable knowledge on national security policy has been a tremendous benefit to the Trump-Vance transition effort.”

She added: “Democrats and their allies in the media who think they are going to obstruct our ability to deliver on this mandate by going back to the same January 6 playbook of smears and faux outrage that was soundly rejected by the American people will be disappointed.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission has been a vocal critic of the financial regulator’s recent effort to require companies to disclose their risks from climate change.

Paul Atkins, a Republican whom President George W. Bush named to the SEC in 2002, is best known as an advocate for cryptocurrency since leaving the commission in 2008. He’s also assailed the SEC’s controversial climate-disclosure rule as a burden to corporate America.

Finalized in March under Biden SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the rule would require publicly traded companies to divulge details about the risks that climate change poses to their business. The SEC paused the rule in April amid lawsuits from Republican state attorneys general and a company led by Chris Wright, Trump’s pick for Energy secretary.

Atkins, who founded the financial sector consultancy group Patomak Global Partner, is a “proven leader for common sense regulations,” Trump said in announcing the selection Wednesday.

“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

Environmental groups and advocates for sustainable investing criticized Atkins’ selection and urged the Senate to reject him, saying he would gut efforts to promote investing based on environmental, social and governance considerations, known as ESG.

“Atkins’ mission to roll back accountability and transparency should raise alarm for the future of responsible investing,” said Kyle Herrig, a spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future, which promotes ESG investing and has run ads supporting the SEC climate-disclosure rule.

Atkins would “surely put a stop to any progress on ESG [principles], which are critical for building a resilient American financial system, protecting the financial security of America’s retirees, and maintaining America’s leadership on the global stage,” Herrig said in a statement.

Before the SEC climate disclosure rule was finalized, Atkins and Republican SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce had argued that it could harm investors because of the complexity and uncertainty of accurately gauging climate risks. Trump appointed Peirce, who was seated in 2018.

Atkins rejected the contention that investors are demanding climate disclosures. He accused the SEC of conflating the demands of both politically motivated investors and climate advocacy groups with the larger market.

“It’s a roundabout way through regulation of disclosure to try to regulate or influence greenhouse gas emissions by themselves, which is delegated by Congress to another agency of the United States government, and that’s namely the EPA,” Atkins said at a virtual panel discussion in 2022 run by the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Atkins wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion column in 2022 urging the SEC to “retract and rethink its planned disclosure rule.” He joined a comment letter with other former SEC commissioners opposing the rule.

During a Federalist Society webinar in July, Atkins called it a “huge rule that would completely upend corporate disclosure.” He said the rule, which the SEC had recently paused, would expand disclosure “and really make things revolve around climate disclosure and all sorts of subjective and very hypothetical effects.”

Testifying before Congress in 2019, Atkins told lawmakers that more mandatory disclosures would be burdensome for companies and would dissuade them from going public. Atkins was testifying against Democratic-led legislation that would have required public companies to provide more information about their environmental and social effects and vulnerabilities.

Atkins would replace Gensler, who championed the climate disclosure rule and has been leading a crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, nominated by President Joe Biden, announced in November that he would step down on Inauguration Day.

The SEC’s five commissioners are appointed for five-year terms, which can be extended, and are politically balanced so that no more than three commissioners are from the same party. Although Gensler’s term runs into 2026, he followed a long practice of SEC chairs resigning when a new president takes office.

Trump, who once expressed skepticism about power-hungry cryptocurrencies, received billions of dollars from the industry for his 2024 campaign and said he would launch his own cryptocurrency business.

Mining cryptocurrency requires high-powered computers that consume a vast amount of electricity. U.S. operations currently account for as much as 2.3 percent of total U.S. electricity usage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s equivalent to the demand from Utah or West Virginia.

While you’re busy buying presents and running to the dry cleaners after yet another holiday party, Congress is racing toward the end of the year — and one of the final weeks in session of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Top of mind: Getting a compromise version of the annual defense policy bill across the finish line. The House Rules Committee meets at 4 p.m. in hopes of teeing up the measure (all 1,800+ pages of it) for floor consideration; if hard-line conservatives block that path, look for Speaker Mike Johnson to put it up under suspension, relying on Democratic votes for the must-pass measure.

There’s no white smoke yet, but we’ll also keep a close watch for progress on a short-term government spending patch. Current funding levels run out on Dec. 20, and there are always bipartisan wishes to get home for the holidays.

Other things on the radar as another week kicks off in Washington:

Two new senators: Democratic Sens.-elect Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Andy Kim (N.J.) will become the newest members of the chamber Monday.

Judges, judges, judges: The House Rules Committee will tee up floor consideration of a Senate-passed measure expanding the number of federal court judicial seats gradually over the next decade. Some progressives have urged the White House to oppose the bill now that President-elect Donald Trump will get to fill some of those posts, but Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) defended the bill last week. “It is really balanced and it’s implemented over a period of years,” Durbin told reporters. “So there might be a political bias but it’s not built into it. It depends on how the voters decide to come up with the next president.”

Side note: Democrats are closing in on 234 judges confirmed, the number that got through the Senate during Trump’s first term. The current tally for Biden’s presidency will hit 230 after senators confirm Tiffany Johnson to a Georgia federal district court slot on Monday evening.

More nominee meetings: More of Trump’s Cabinet picks are expected on the Hill this week to meet with Republican senators, including embattled Defense Department pick Pete Hegseth and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, his pick to be director of national intelligence. On Hegseth, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), vowed over the weekend to conduct a “thorough vetting” of the pick and will hold another meeting with him. And Gabbard, who has drawn criticism for previously meeting with the newly ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, is being seen as the next Trump nominee likely to hit major turbulence in the Senate.

Who says Congress is gridlocked? The House is about to take up a bill granting 39 communities their own unique zip codes. Good news for you Scotland, Conn., Goose Creek, S.C. and Montz, La., among others.

Here’s what we’re watching in transition world today:

 🗓️ What we’re watching

• Following the rebel victory in Syria over the Assad regime, President-elect Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin that “this is his time” to start making cease-fire deals with Ukraine. 
• After a few weeks under the radar as other nominees were on the hot seat, Tulsi Gabbard is facing renewed scrutiny over her past sympathies for Assad. 
• Democratic governors got together on Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles to discuss how they plan to “Trump-proof” their states going into the second Trump administration.
• Trump said on “Meet the Press” that he plans to end birthright citizenship in the United States on day one of his presidency “through executive action,” though he did not go into specific details. In the same interview, he also said he “can’t guarantee” that Americans won’t pay more if tariffs are enacted. 

🚨What’s up with the nominees?

• Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth has 21 Hill meetings set for this week, Joe Gould reports for POLITICOPro’s Morning Defense. On Monday, he’ll meet with Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). 
• Ernst, who holds an important swing vote in Hegseth’s path to being confirmed as defense secretary, has spoken out about her concerns over the president-elect’s pick. As a survivor of sexual assault herself, she noted in an address to the Reagan National Defense Forum that she would like to hear more about the allegations against Hegseth.
• Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, is getting some help from Chad Mizelle, formerly acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security under the first Trump administration, to prepare for her confirmation.

📝ICYMI: Here are the latest Cabinet picks 

• Alina Habba is joining the White House as counselor to the president, Trump announced Sunday. 
• Trump announced a few hires who will serve in the State Department with Marco Rubio if he’s confirmed. Christopher Landau is Trump’s pick for deputy secretary of state, Michael Needham was tapped as counselor and Michael Anton is the prospective director of policy planning.

Sen. Joni Ernst said Friday she’s planning to meet next week with Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon.

The meeting comes after Ernst expressed doubts about confirming Hegseth to be secretary of defense. He has come under scrutiny following allegations of misconduct, including sexual assault, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement of two nonprofit veterans groups.

Hegseth has denied the allegations.

“At a minimum, we agree that he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our warfighters at a fair hearing,” Ernst said in a social media post.

Ernst met with Hegseth this week in her Senate office but later expressed reservations about his running the Pentagon. She said “I think you are right,” when a Fox News reporter said she did not appear to be fully in support of his nomination.

Ernst, a retired Iowa National Guard lieutenant colonel and sexual assault survivor, serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Hegseth got a boost Friday when Trump posted supportive words on social media, saying “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep.”

As Pam Bondi prepares for confirmation as attorney general, she is working with a top lawyer from President-elect Donald Trump’s first term: Chad Mizelle, formerly acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security.

Mizelle has been in meetings with Bondi in Florida as she prepares to lead the Justice Department, according to a person with knowledge of the preparations. At the beginning of Trump’s first term, he was counsel to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Then, after a White House stint, he became a senior official at DHS. As the acting general counsel, he helped craft and defend Trump’s border security and deportation initiatives.

Mizelle is a longtime ally of Stephen Miller, Trump’s hawkish immigration adviser who has long pushed for dramatically heightened immigration enforcement. Trump announced last month that Miller will serve as deputy chief of staff for policy in his incoming White House.

The Justice Department will be instrumental in Trump’s effort to deliver on his promise of mass deportation. It houses the nation’s heavily backlogged immigration courts, which adjudicate immigrants’ appeals to stay in the country. And a significant portion of its criminal cases involve immigration-related crimes.

In 2017, during Mizelle’s time at DOJ, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prosecutors to prioritize cases that could deter illegal immigration. The percentage of defendants charged with immigration crimes surged — cresting at more than one-third of defendants, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Mizelle is general counsel for Affinity Partners, the investment firm helmed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. And like Bondi, he has Florida roots: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, his wife, is a Trump-appointed federal judge in Tampa.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for the top Democratic Oversight Committee job could give her one of the most visible perches in Congress as the party tries to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

In her Friday letter to Democratic colleagues, the 35-year-old progressive sketched out her vision for the panel’s Democrats as they brace for another term in the political wilderness — the minority in both chambers of Congress. She’ll be running against Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who launched his bid earlier this week.

“We must balance our focus on the incoming president’s corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America’s working class,” she wrote. “I know firsthand how the Majority uses their chaos to confuse, disorient, and distract the public’s attention away from their disastrous agenda. We cannot and will not allow that to happen. I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work.”

The Oversight Committee is home to some of the House’s biggest partisan fights, with both parties typically stocking the panel with fighters who will target their political enemies. Ocasio-Cortez first joined Congress during the latter half of Trump’s first presidential term and gained notoriety for her pointed questioning of committee witnesses and sparring with Trump officials.

Under the GOP majority, the panel was at the center of some of Republicans’ most-high profile, and most-criticized, investigations, including a monthslong impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that focused largely on the business deals of his family members. And next Congress it will be in the driver’s seat as Republicans jockey to coordinate with Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to cut federal spending.

In the minority, Democrats have limited tools at their disposal to block Republican actions on the committee. While the GOP will have the ability to call witnesses and subpoena documents, Democrats won’t have much in the way of real power. They can slow things down with procedural roadblocks, but their most effective tool aligns with one of Ocasio-Cortez’s strengths: earning media attention by blasting the majority party’s antics.

Current Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), for example, has focused on the business deals of Trump’s family members as a counterpoint to the GOP’s impeachment inquiry. And Ocasio-Cortez, in her letter, said Democrats need to “focus on the Committee’s strong history of both holding administrations accountable and taking on the economic precarity and inequality that is challenging the American way of life.”

Ocasio-Cortez herself has a prominent following from younger, diverse people and is known to use her major influence on social media to explain her stances on policy and political issues. She has a specific style and effectiveness at hearings, resulting in key moments that have repeatedly gone viral. Her ability to create high-profile moments in hearings has even won begrudging admiration from some Republicans, who believe she’s effective even as they strongly disagree with most of her ideological stances.

But it’s not the American electorate she needs to win over to get the top Democratic spot on Oversight. House Democrats’ powerful Steering and Policy Committee, which handles panel assignments, is expected to start considering contested committee slots in two weeks. The panel will hold secret ballots to recommend leaders to the full caucus, which will then officially vote on who will lead the party on panels.

Both Ocasio-Cortez and Connolly have been quietly canvassing their fellow lawmakers as they’ve launched their bids. The full Steering and Policy Committee hasn’t yet been named. Ocasio-Cortez could likely count on influential blocs of support in the party, like members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Progressive Caucus, while Connolly could get backing from senior members of the caucus across various factions.

Connolly, in his own letter to colleagues earlier this week, leaned into his history on the committee, willingness to work with and listen to other members and ability to battle with Trump as he works to lock down votes ahead of the Steering meeting.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is a beat I know well, and right now we need an expert who can parry the worst Republican attacks on our institutions and deliver reform where it is necessary and needed,” he wrote.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped into the race to be the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, according to a letter she sent to her colleagues Friday.

“I write to you today to seek your support to serve as Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the 119th Congress,” she wrote.

The New York Democrat will face Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia to succeed Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who’s likely to become the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Democrats increasingly believe she’s entering the race with a sizable bloc of support and could win the Steering and Policy Committee recommendation and the full caucus election. But it’s not in the bag yet — Connolly’s camp is projecting confidence as well.

The 35-year-old outspoken progressive has often bucked party leaders and came to Congress by ousting a powerful committee chair herself. Since then, she’s learned to play the inside track in the Democratic Caucus, working with colleagues and leadership and stumping for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. She’s served as the vice-ranking member of the Oversight Committee this Congress under Raskin, whom she is close to.

House Democrats are expected to start the process of selecting new committee leaders and members next week.

Recommendations on committee heads will be made by the Steering and Policy Committee, a powerful and under-the-radar panel that is set to considerexclusive committee appointments like the Ways and Means panel next week, and then the remaining committees the week after. The second batch includes multiple contested top Democratic spots.

The steering panel will first hold a secret ballot vote to recommend a committee leader, then the full caucus will vote on the leadership slot.

House Republican leadership met on Friday morning to discuss outstanding disagreements on how to kick off the reconciliation process, according to two senior Republicans, granted anonymity to share the private deliberations.

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) was in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office for at least an hour around Friday morning’s vote series. Johnson’s senior policy adviser, Derek Theurer, who was previously chief tax counsel for the Ways and Means committee, was seen exiting the speaker’s office during that period.

According to people who participated in the conversation, the focus of the discussion was how to address disagreements between Smith and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on how to kick off the reconciliation process, which would allow Republicans to pass trillions of dollars of tax cut extensions without Democratic support.

Thune has said he would like to pass a non-tax reconciliation bill, including energy and defense policies, within the first 30 days of President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration. Smith has pushed back on that idea, arguing that Republicans need to include everything in one big reconciliation bill to pass it through the House’s slim majority.

“The other piece that people are underestimating is we are very similarly situated in the House like the Senate in past reconciliations,” said House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), who was also seen in the speaker’s office Friday morning. “Now they have a bigger margin than we do. So it’s going to be a bigger challenge for us to get to a magic number to pass it with only a two-seat margin. And the more policies you put into the mix, the more you can attract different constituencies.”

When asked whether the Ways and Means committee and Senate Republicans were close to ironing out their differences, committee member David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) shook his head. “That dance is going to go on for quite a while,” he said.

The high-stakes battle on Capitol Hill over Pete Hegseth’s quest to lead the Defense Department is causing no shortage of angst in the Pentagon, where officials are watching nervously to find out who their next boss will be.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army veteran, is being dogged by claims involving alleged sexual assault and public drunkenness and has spent the week meeting with Republican senators to ensure he has the votes to pass, even though there are serious doubts he has the numbers.

“The biggest thing I’m picking up is a level of discomfort and uncertainty. People want to know who their leadership is going to be and what they’re going to be asked to do, these are professionals who can put personal feelings aside,” said one Pentagon official, who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly on a sensitive subject.

The official also noted that the Trump team’s delay in signing an agreement with the White House means the Pentagon and other agencies are in a holding pattern until transition officials are in place.

“The facts that Hegseth’s past has jeopardized his nomination and that the transition team still isn’t in the building will just make it harder for the incoming administration to lead DOD,” the official said.

A DOD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President-elect Donald Trump is, for now, standing by his pick, posting on social media Friday morning that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

“His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump posted.

Hegseth is already a polarizing figure, and officials at the Pentagon say there’s no unified response to the specter of him taking over the department. Hegseth is an outspoken opponent of Biden-era policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and he has promised, as has Trump, to role back the initiatives immediately.

But Hegseth has also said women should not be deployed inside combat units.

“I think it’s split on Hegseth,” a second Pentagon official said. “Some are really happy he’s going after the … DEI stuff and focusing on lethality, but his comments on women — and some of his alleged conduct — are troublesome to many.”

The reaction isn’t as mixed about Trump’s pick for the Pentagon’s No. 2 job, private equity executive Stephen Feinberg. The secretive billionaire financier with no experience in the agency has a long track record in the defense industrial world.

“People are very excited for Feinberg,” the second official said.

Despite all the opinions on Hegseth, officials are still speaking in hushed tones about the nomination, especially since Hegseth has said Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown and other top leaders should be fired.

“I think everyone is trying not to talk about it for fear of being the one getting caught saying anything,” a third Pentagon official said.