(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has denied special counsel Jack Smith’s request to immediately take up former President Donald Trump’s claims of immunity from prosecution in his federal election interference case.
In a single-line order Friday, the court declined to grant a writ of certiorari before judgment — meaning it will allow a federal appeals court to hear the matter first, which is what Trump’s legal team had urged the court to do.
The decision effectively keeps the court out of the case for now and could mean the case’s March 4 trial date could be delayed.
Trump is seeking the dismissal of the case on the grounds that he has “absolute immunity” from prosecution for actions taken while serving in the nation’s highest office.
Smith earlier this month asked the Supreme Court to step in and quickly rule on the issue — a potentially landmark decision that could, for the first time in American history, determine whether a former U.S. president can be prosecuted for actions taken while in office.
Attorneys for Trump asked the Supreme Court to reject the special counsel’s request, urging the justices to allow a federal appeals court to consider the matter first.
Trump in August pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and denounced the charges as “a persecution of a political opponent.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order allowing the U.S. to impose another level of sanction enforcement on Russia that will go after financial institutions that have indirectly allowed Russia to keep building its war arsenal.
“The new executive order by the president will simply give us a tool that will allow us to go after financial institutions that failed to make the choice to either stop allowing their companies to ship these goods to the Russia’s military industrial complex, or getting out of business with Russia,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the new sanctions “will make clear to foreign financial institutions that facilitating significant transactions relating to Russia’s military industrial base will expose them to sanctions risk,” noting that the multiple rounds of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies to date “have significantly degraded Russia’s ability to replace the equipment, materials, and technology it needs to fuel its aggression.”
“They have cut into Russia’s financial resilience, forcing Russia to turn to rogue regimes for supplies and make difficult decisions to resource its military spending. And importantly, our measures have also been tailored and targeted to avoid unintended harm for the world economy,” he continued.
Friday’s order — just one approach among many employed by the U.S. in an effort to weaken Russia amid its aggression against Ukraine — is aimed at cracking down on an evasion tactic that has allowed Russia to continue to get access to financial institutions through other, smaller financial institutions, and buy materials they need for war. Russian sanctions have been a constant game of cat and mouse, and the new executive order marks the latest effort to catch Russia in those tactics.
“It gives us a surgical tool that allows us to go after the financial institutions that are doing transactions that further Russia’s military industrial complex,” the senior administration official said on the call with reporters.
Another senior administration official gave an example of some of the “secondary” steps in the sanction process that the U.S. has focused on: Russian diamonds. The U.S. has already banned the import of Russian diamonds directly, but with Friday’s executive order has also banned diamonds shipped from Russia to another country for processing, and then to the U.S.
The officials both cautioned that the executive order was just one tool in the toolkit to weaken Russia, including military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and consistently implored Congress to approve the supplemental aid package the White House has requested.
The U.S.’ initial set of sanctions and export controls had a significant impact on Russia, the first official said, but the Kremlin has since built “cutouts and facilitators” through smaller companies. Experts diverge on whether the sanctions have had a strong enough impact on Russia.
“We’ve sanctioned a number of these companies that we’ve found, but ultimately, the choke point for these companies and Russia’s ability to continue to try and circumvent our sanctions is the financial system because ultimately they need to have financial transactions in order to move things from a third party jurisdiction into Russia,” the official said.
“What this tool allows us to do is to target those institutions and give them a very stark choice,” the official said.
The official said it was unlikely any U.S. or European banks will directly be implicated by the executive order, but rather that it could impact some of their partners.
“So part of our goal in issuing — in using this tool is going to be getting banks in Europe in the United States that have relationships with banks around the world and other jurisdictions to help warn them about the importance of taking steps to prevent themselves from being used to move goods into Russia that furthers the military industrial complex,” the official said.
To Sullivan, the new sanctions are a critical messaging tool.
“We are sending an unmistakable message: anyone supporting Russia’s unlawful war effort is at risk of losing access to the U.S. financial system,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie outlined his national drug crisis plan earlier this week — sharing his roadmap that focuses on ending the stigma and turning attention to treatment.
On Wednesday afternoon, Christie spoke at Hope on Haven Hill, a woman’s recovery house in Rochester, New Hampshire, where he directly called out President Joe Biden for staying silent on the issue — bringing up the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who suffers from addiction to drive his point home.
“And this is not a political statement, or partisan statement. He owes it to this country as a father, as a father who understands the pain that every member of the family goes through when there’s someone in active addiction in their family,” Christie said, demanding that the issue be considered a top priority and reaffirming that he will make it one if elected commander in chief next year.
The former New Jersey governor, who served on White House commission on opioid misuse in 2017, complimented former President Donald Trump for enacting his recommendations while on the commission, but insisted much more needs to be done as the issue hasn’t subsided.
Across the country, officials are battling deadly drug abuse. Last year, nearly 110,000 people died from drug overdoses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC predicts that 28 states are expected to see a rise in overdose deaths from 2022 to 2023.
“Both President Trump and President Biden have treated it as a crisis in name only. And they haven’t done everything that they need to do to keep us making progress. And so as a result, if you don’t make progress you’re falling backwards,” Christie said.
Christie outlined a plan to stem the flow of fentanyl, secure the border, develop stronger posture with Mexico and go directly to the source, China President Xi Jinping.
Also, Christie said he would increase access to treatment by expanding telehealth policies so that it would be available at all federally qualified health centers.
Speaking to a room full of caregivers as well as mothers currently struggling with substance-use disorder, Christie said his plan is all about “basic humanity.”
“We need an approach that remembers and reflects on the very basic humanity of every single one of those 100,000 victims, as well as the treasures each one of them could have brought to this country,” he said.
Christie differentiated himself from other GOP candidates by not pinning the issue solely to the southern border or China. He mentioned that other contenders are “too narrow focused.” During his remarks, he indirectly called out Trump for sending the military to Mexico, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for pledging to shoot drug dealers at the border and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley for cutting off trade with China. Christie alluded that others offer minimalistic solutions that don’t make an indentation to the larger crisis.
“It will be important to stem some of the flow of this stuff into our country, but that’s not going to be what fixes this problem by itself. And people who say that’s what will do it just are not telling the truth,” he said.
It’s an issue that’s deeply personal to Christie after he lost a friend from an overdose. Since then, he and his wife, Mary Pat, have worked to shed light on recovery programs — even before he ran for president.
He met the executive director of Haven Hill, Kerry Norton, back in 2016 while he was still the governor of New Jersey. Although, Norton said she hasn’t decided who she will vote for, she has given the opportunity to each candidate to speak at the center. Only Christie has accepted.
“It’s the people that matter and we do need to be able to support everybody and to support families because that’s what makes communities better as healthy people,” Norton said.
For mothers such as Emma Rosenthal who want recovery programs to be at the forefront of 2024 election, Christie’s refusal to make this issue solely about the “southern border” really resonated with her.
“It’s so much more than just that. It’s so much more than just the wall. The awareness is the biggest piece,” Rosenthal said.
Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump gestures at the end of a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023. CREDIT: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A Michigan newspaper is reporting what it says is a recording of a previously unknown phone call that former President Donald Trump and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel had with two local Michigan election officials in the wake of the 2020 election in which the officials allegedly were being pushed to not certify President Joe Biden’s win.
The new report from The Detroit News says that in the recording played for its reporters, that during the call, Trump reportedly personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
In the report’s description of the phone call recording, which the Detroit News report says took place on Nov. 17, 2020, Trump allegedly told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, that they would look “terrible” if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition only to later — in the same meeting — vote to approve certification of the election results.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” the Detroit News reports Trump says on the recordings, which the newspaper reports was made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us,” the newspaper says Trump continued.
ABC News has not confirmed The Detroit News report and audio of the call has not yet been released.
A statement by the Trump campaign was provided to ABC News in response, which did not deny the Detroit News’ report.
“All of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump Campaign spokesman Steve Cheung told ABC News. “President Trump and the American people have the Constitutional right to free and fair elections. Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are spinning their wheels in the face of devastating polling numbers and desperately leaking misleading information to interfere in the election.”
The Detroit News report says Palmer and Hartmann ended up leaving the meeting without signing the official statement of votes for Wayne County and the following day they unsuccessfully attempted to rescind their votes in favor of certification
McDaniel responded to the report, telling The Detroit News, “What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit.”
If Palmer and Hartman had been able to stop the certification of the Wayne County votes, the statewide certification of Michigan’s 2020 election could have been thrown into doubt.
Palmer also did not dispute a summary of the call, according to the newspaper. ABC News has reached out to Palmer for comment. Hartmann died in 2021.
President Joe Biden meets with staff in the Oval Office, Tuesday, September 27, 2022. — (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Friday he was granting clemency to nearly a dozen people who have been serving long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
The president also announced he was signing a proclamation to pardon certain marijuana offenses, building on action he took back in 2022 to pardon thousands of Americans who had been convicted of simple marijuana possession.
“America was founded on the principle of equal justice under law,” Biden said in a statement. “Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect this core value that makes our communities safer and stronger. That is why today I am announcing additional steps I am taking to make the promise of equal justice a reality.”
Of the 11 people who will have their sentences commuted, some were convicted to decades or even life in prison for crack cocaine-related offenses.
“All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today,” Biden said in a statement.
According to a White House official, some individuals received sentences twice as long as they would likely receive now.
Additionally, Biden will issue a proclamation to pardon additional marijuana offenses related to simple possession and use of the drug under federal and Washington, D.C., law.
“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
He also urged state officials to take similar action.
“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either. That’s why I continue to urge Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses and applaud those who have since taken action,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump gestures at the end of a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023. CREDIT: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A UPS delivery driver in Maine went above and beyond this week to make sure holiday packages arrived in one piece.
Following a monster storm Monday and Tuesday, Maine residents saw heavy floodwaters. Despite the poor weather, Ryan Long, a UPS employee, said he was determined to get customers’ packages — many of which were likely Christmas gifts — safely to their destinations.
A person spotted Long on the other side of a washed out road using a small boat to cross and deliver multiple packages, Portland, Maine, ABC affiliate WMTW reported.
Since then, local residents say the floodwaters have receded and the washed-out road is scheduled to be repaired.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, with his family by his side, speaks to guests during the Scott County Fireside Chat at the Tanglewood Hills Pavilion on December 18, 2023 in Bettendorf, Iowa. CREDIT: Scott Olson/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he wished former President Donald Trump hadn’t been indicted, saying he thinks the charges have helped him in the race to become the Republican nominee.
Asked whether he had one regret throughout this primary cycle, DeSantis said Trump’s legal trouble has “distorted the primary.”
DeSantis made his comment to David Brody in an interview with CBN.
“I would say if I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff. I mean, honestly, I think that, you know, from Alvin Bragg on, I’ve criticized the cases, I think, you know, someone like a Bragg would not have brought that case if it was anyone other than Donald Trump. And so, you know, someone like that’s distorting justice, which is bad, but I also think it distorted the primary and I think it’s been, those have kind of been the main issues that have happened.”
“Because it’s helped him? Is that what you’re saying?” Brody asked, alluding to Trump’s dominant performance in the Republican primary, according to 538 polling.
“It’s both that, but then also, it’s just crowded out, I think, so much other stuff and it’s sucked out a lot of oxygen, and so, you know, some of these guys like Bragg, you know, that they abused their power,” DeSantis responded. “I mean, incidentally, he’s a Soros-backed prosecutor — I’m the only one in the country, I’ve removed two [prosecutors], one from Tampa and one from Orlando — and it does show you that they view law as an extension of politics, and that gets very, very dangerous when this country goes down that road.”
Pressed by Brody whether it made Trump “stronger” in the primary and “made it tougher for you and others” to break through with GOP voters, DeSantis said it did.
“I think for the primary, it distorted, yeah, I think it’s distorted,” he said. “Now in the general election, I think the Democrats have a plan on this, I think the media has a plan on this and I think if it gets to the point where six months from now, Trump’s the presumptive nominee and he’s having to go through all this, they have a plan for how they’re going to ride this out.”
538’s polling averages show that DeSantis was running much more closely behind Trump early in the year, but that began to change shortly before Trump’s first indictment.
DeSantis has expressed condemnation of prosecutors amid Trump’s legal woes, saying immediately after Trump’s third indictment — charging him in connection with his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss — that while he had not yet read the indictment, he believes the case is further evidence for the need to “reform” America’s justice system.
“As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans,” DeSantis wrote. “While I’ve seen reports, I have not read the indictment. I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC to their home districts.”
Prosecutors have rejected the claim that they were politically motivated.
Following Trump’s first indictment brought following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign, DeSantis, as governor of Florida, said the Sunshine State would “not assist in an extradition request.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all four cases and entered not guilty pleas.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge on Wednesday granted former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss’ request to expedite their $148 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani, saying that the mother and daughter have “good cause” to fear Giuliani may attempt to avoid paying them.
Following a week-long trial, a federal jury last week ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the two women for defaming them with false accusations that they committed election fraud while counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.
Freeman and Moss subsequently asked the judge to “permit immediate enforcement” of the judgment out of concern that the former New York City mayor could attempt to “find a way to dissipate [his] assets before plaintiffs are able to recover.”
Judge Beryl Howell agreed Wednesday that Giuliani’s record as an “unwilling and uncooperative litigant” provides the plaintiffs “good cause to believe that he will seek to dissipate or conceal his assets” before paying them.
Howell added that other civil cases filed against Giuliani — including one filed by his former attorney, Robert Costello, and another filed by President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden — “raise the risk that Giuliani has even greater motivation to hide his financial assets from potential future judgments against him.”
If Giuliani intends to appeal the judgment, which he has indicated he plans to do, he “would have to comply with the usual requirement of a full supersedeas bond,” Howell wrote, meaning that he may have to post a bond in the full amount of the judgment, Howell said.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the legal debate over presidential immunity regarding his actions attacking the 2020 election results and reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request for expedited consideration of the issue, which could upend one of Smith’s cases against Trump.
“The Special Counsel contends that ‘[i]t is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court,'” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a brief to the high court, urging the justices to allow a federal appeals court to consider the matter first.
“Every jurisdictional and prudential consideration calls for this Court to allow the appeal to proceed first in the D.C. Circuit. ‘Haste makes waste’ is an old adage. It has survived because it is right so often,” the attorneys wrote.
The filing comes in response to Smith’s highly unusual petition to the justices last week, seeking a fast-tracked judgment on the question of immunity for Trump in order to clear the way for his federal election subversion case to go to trial as planned on March 4.
Trump in August pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and denounced the charges as “a persecution of a political opponent,” which Smith and the Department of Justice have rejected.
“It requires no extended discussion to confirm that this case–involving charges that respondent sought to thwart the peaceful transfer of power through violations of federal criminal law–is at the apex of public importance,” Smith wrote in his request.
“The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request,” Smith wrote. “This is an extraordinary case.”
Only in rare instances of urgent and sweeping significance does the court bypass appellate review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has already expedited review of a district court ruling that found Trump is not immune from prosecution. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 9.
The justices are not on a fixed timeline to decide on Smith’s request but are likely to do so before early January.
Trump’s team argued Wednesday that a question of such historic and political weight merited a “cautious and deliberative” consideration “not at breakneck speed.”
“In 234 years of American history, no President ever faced criminal prosecution for his official acts. Until 19 days ago, no court had ever addressed whether immunity from such prosecution exists. To this day, no appellate court has addressed it,” they wrote.
Trump’s attorneys argued in his new filing that the government has no standing to request an expedited high court review because it won in the district court; that public interest warrants a careful resolution of the question, not a rushed hearing because of a “partisan motivation” of the election; and, that a lack of case law around the question should mean more time for lower court judges to weigh in.
(WASHINGTON) — ABC News on Wednesday announced how Republican presidential candidates will be able to qualify for the network’s upcoming New Hampshire primary debate in January.
To earn a spot on stage, candidates will either have to finish in the top three in the Iowa caucuses or receive at least 10% in two separate national polls of Republican primary voters or at least 10% in two separate New Hampshire polls of Republican primary voters that that meet ABC’s standards for reporting.
The same pollster can count more than once only if the polls are conducted in wholly separate field periods.
ABC and local station WMUR-TV announced earlier this month that they would be coordinating with the New Hampshire Republican State Committee for a 9 p.m. EST, Jan. 18, debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The debate will be held just five days before the state’s Republican primary and three days after the Iowa caucuses, which are scheduled for Jan. 15. The results from those two states will give the first evidence of where voters are leaning in selecting the GOP’s 2024 nominee.
Former President Donald Trump is the clear front-runner in polling, despite his controversies and legal troubles. (He denies all wrongdoing.) He has also declined to participate in any debates, saying there’s no point because of his popularity, though rivals like Ron DeSantis have slammed his absence.
To determine eligibility for ABC’s debate, only polling data collected from surveys that began no earlier than Nov. 27 and are released no later than noon on Jan. 16 will be considered. Poll results reported with a decimal place will not be rounded up or down.
For debate qualification purposes, polls conducted by the following entities will be considered eligible: ABC News/Washington Post, ABC News/Ipsos, CBS News/YouGov, CNN, Emerson College/WHDH, Fox News, Fox Business News, Marist College, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, Monmouth University/The Washington Post, NBC News, The New York Times/Siena College, Quinnipiac University, University of New Hampshire/CNN, Saint Anselm College, Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal.
Currently, Trump, Florida Gov. DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would qualify for the New Hampshire primary debate.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have not yet reached 10% in a qualifying national or New Hampshire poll, so they would each need either two national or two state surveys to reach the threshold.
Ramaswamy and Hutchinson could also place top three in Iowa in order to qualify.
