Trump ‘immunity’ claim in election interference case goes before Supreme Court: Live

NewsNation GOP debate host Megyn Kelly has a dire prediction for American politics should Donald Trump face actual consequences for any of the more than 90 felony charges he now faces in court.

Kelly spoke to far-right gadfly Glenn Beck this past week after she was part of the team moderating the fourth and final Republican primary debate of 2023; a handful have just been scheduled to occur over January and February.

In her conversation with Beck, Kelly explained that she thought there would be violence in the streets were Mr Trump to be convicted and imprisoned before the 2024 election occurs next November.

Donald Trump and his associates allegedly repeatedly contacted a former Mar-a-Lago employee who knew of key conversations and moments in the federal classified documents case against the former president.

According to multiple human sources and other material accessed by CNN, Mr Trump took a rare step and reached out to the employee a few days after he quit working at the Florida estate to inquire why he was leaving.

Mr Trump’s associates later allegedly offered the former employee free tickets to a golf tournament.

The former employee, who later told the federal special counsel’s office investigating the documents case about the communications, even allegedly got an offer from Mr Trump’s lawyer for assistance in finding legal representation, with the lawyer mentioning in a voicemail that he was aware the former employee had been subpoenaed to provide information to a grand jury.

The Independent has contacted the Justice Department and a lawyer for the former president in the documents case for comment.

An answer would mark the first time the nation’s highest court has weighed in on the criminal prosecutions of the former president, who was charged in a grand jury indictment for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Hours after Mr Smith’s request on Monday, justices agreed to expedite the case. Mr Trump has until 4pm on 20 December to respond.

The former president has argued that he is protected from prosecution for crimes committed while in office, citing “presidential immunity” that the federal judge overseeing the case has rejected. He has appealed that ruling.

Mr Smith’s team with the US Department of Justice asked for the justices to determine “whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin.”

“The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request,” according to the filing. “This is an extraordinary case.”

Monday’s court filing outlining three expert witnesses who are expected to testify at trial include people who work with geolocation data on mobile devices – including phones that belonged to Mr Trump and others at the White House – and who have previously mapped the movement of rioters who breached the Capitol grounds and halls of Congress.

“There’s not an international event that I’ve attended – not one – where the rest of the world doesn’t come up to me – leaders, no matter what country they’re from – and say, ‘You can’t let him win. You can’t let him win,” Mr Biden reportedly told the audience.

Life for Shaye Moss turned upside down after Rudy Giuliani made life hell for her family.

Three years after spreading a lie that the election worker in Georgia manipulated ballots to rig the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump’s former attorney listened to her in person for the first time as she described the abuse she endured, the pain she lives with, and the overwhelming anxiety she continues to experience.

He was already found liable for defaming the mother-daughter pair of election workers, whose lives were bombarded with racist threats and harassment fuelled by false claims amplified across social media and right-wing media networks.

Alex Woodward and Oliver O’Connell have the details in their full report.

The legal filing from the attorneys for the mother and daughter points to an ABC News report in which Mr Giuliani said he “told the truth” about the election workers “changing votes”. He added that he shouldn’t be held accountable because of “other people overreacting”.

NBC News has reportedly demanded that Donald Trump’s campaign remove a video that has been doctored to abuse his Republican presidential nominee rivals.

The video was later confirmed to be a parody, and had been audio deceptively edited, sources close to the demands by NBC told Semafor.