Today in One Sentence. White House counsel Will Scharf threatened criminal investigations of Democrats over their planned oversight of the Trump administration; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly confronted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the administration’s failure to blacklist an Nvidia customer suspected of illegally diverting advanced AI chips to China; Bessent moved from his home to a military base for his safety following threats from Iran; and a federal judge allowed Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed.

1/ White House counsel Will Scharf threatened criminal investigations of Democrats over their planned oversight of the Trump administration. In a letter to incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Robert Garcia, Scharf claimed that Democrats’ subpoena threats showed an intent to harass officials that “may cross the line into blatant criminality.” Garcia responded: “We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the President’s lawyers.” (Politico / ABC News / Associated Press / New York Times / Bloomberg / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / CBS News)

2/ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly confronted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the administration’s failure to blacklist an Nvidia customer suspected of illegally diverting advanced AI chips to China. During a White House Situation Room meeting last week, Bessent demanded to know why Megaspeed hadn’t been placed on the Commerce Department’s export blacklist. Lutnick reportedly replied, “I don’t know. I’ll look into it.” Megaspeed has purchased more than $4 billion in Nvidia technology and officials from several federal agencies reportedly concluded months ago that it should be blacklisted. Meanwhile, Lutnick received a classified memo overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. Rubio also reportedly briefed Trump about the relationship aboard Air Force One in May, before Jensen Huang joined the presidential delegation to China. Trump had also been warned about the relationship the previous fall, but denied knowing about it at the time of the May trip and continued defending Nvidia’s CEO, saying, “I just think he’s a very honorable man.” (Axios / New York Times / Axios / New York Times)

3/ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved from his home to a military base for his safety following threats from Iran. The Treasury Department said Bessent “will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats” and would continue the sanctions campaign and blockade targeting Iran’s economy. U.S. intelligence chief Jay Clayton warned last month that Iran had “substantially increased” its efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond. (Associated Press / ABC News / CBS News / CNBC)

4/ A federal judge allowed Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed. The BBC’s documentary spliced parts of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, creating the impression he urged supporters to storm the Capitol, while omitting a line in which he told them to march “peacefully and patriotically.” Judge Jeffrey Kuntz wrote that the edit supported a “plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known” the segment was misleading. Trump called the ruling “A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC.” Meanwhile, Trump faces a Dec. 11 deadline to sit for a deposition or risk sanctions, including possible dismissal of the lawsuit, unless the deadline is extended. (NBC News / CBS News / New York Times / The Hill)

The 2028 presidential election is in 727 days.