Trump to file final immunity claim over 2020 election case: Live – The Independent

A chronicle of Donald Trump's Crimes or Allegations

Trump to file final immunity claim over 2020 election case: Live – The Independent

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Former president was removed from the Republican Party primary ballot in both Maine and Colorado
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Donald Trump doubles down on anti-immigrant rhetoric after Supreme Court decision
Donald Trump has asked a court in Maine to overturn the secretary of state’s decision that removed him from the 2024 Republican primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause and his role in the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
The former president’s appeal comes as attorneys are set to submit final written arguments to a federal appeals court claiming that Mr Trump is immune from prosecution concerning the charges he faces over the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Oral arguments from Mr Trump’s lawyers and special counsel prosecutors will then be heard on 9 January, after which a three-judge panel will rule on the matter.
Elsewhere, Mr Trump is now leading President Joe Biden among young and Hispanic voters, according to a new poll.
The USA Today/Suffolk University survey found that 39 per cent of Hispanic voters now back the former president compared to 34 per cent supporting his Democratic successor.
Mr Trump also has a four percentage point lead among voters under 35, with 37 per cent to Mr Biden’s 33 per cent.
These demographics typically vote Democrat so the findings spell potential trouble for the incumbent in the 2024 presidential race.
Donald Trump’s attorneys have appealed a decision from Maine’s top elections official to remove him from 2024 presidential ballots for his actions surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Last week’s decision from Maine’s secretary of state Shenna Bellows challenges his eligibility under a provision of the 14th Amendment, which bars any person who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office.
The attack, fuelled by Mr Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, “were an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote in last week’s decision.
Alex Woodward reports:
The former president faces a growing list of legal challenges surrounding his eligibility to hold public office
Eric Garcia writes:
President Joe Biden welcomed the New Year with another gut punch in the polls on Monday when a USA Today/Suffolk University survey showed him losing to former president Donald Trump by two points. To boot, the survey showed Mr Biden losing Hispanic voters and young people against Mr Trump.
At this point, Mr Biden’s flagging poll numbers are hardly news. Numerous surveys have shown his numbers declining and the president either in a dead heat with or behind Mr Trump.
Mr Biden has long struggled to win over Hispanic voters ever since the 2020 Nevada caucus when he lost to Sen Bernie Sanders and in 2020 when numerous Hispanics, mainly in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and South Florida, moved rightward, even as Mr Biden won a majority of them.
Mr Biden’s low numbers with young people are also unsurprising as many of them have expressed dissatisfaction about his support for Israel and feel he has not done enough on student loan relief, even though he did wipe out tons of student debt and the Supreme Court blocked his larger student debt cancellation effort.
What does stand out is that the poll reveals both Mr Biden’s biggest weaknesses and his best hope for re-election, respectively: the lack of enthusiasm for him and the fact that Americans are starting to feel a bit better about the economy.
Read the full article…
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a response to the Colorado Republican Party’s filing at the US Supreme Court regarding Donald Trump’s eligibility to be on the primary ballot in the state.
The former president was removed from the ballot under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment which excludes those who engage in an insurrection against the US from holding federal or state office.
In it’s filing, CREW argues: “… not all issues presented in the Colorado Republican State Central Committee’s (“Colorado Republican Party”) petition warrant this Court’s attention. The Court should grant certiorari on Question 1 (whether Section 3 covers former Presidents) and a reframed Question 2 (whether states have authority to enforce Section 3 pursuant to state law absent federal legislation). But the Court should decline to hear the Colorado Republican Party’s claim that it has a First Amendment right to place a constitutionally ineligible candidate on the primary ballot. This Court’s settled precedent holds that the Constitution provides no right to confuse voters and clutter the ballot with candidates who are not eligible to hold the office they seek.”
Read the full filing here
Alex Woodward filed this report on the case in late December:
The former president’s legal team is expected to file its own appeal to the nation’s highest court
Donald Trump has asked a Maine court to overturn the decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to remove him from the 2024 primary ballot there because of his role in the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
The former president has been removed from the ballot in both Maine and Colorado because of the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Read the complaint filed by Mr Trump’s lawyers.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he regrets not taking a city pension now that he’s facing a $148m civil court payout for defaming a pair of Georgia election workers.
The former mayor has since filed for bankruptcy, according to the New York Post.
Empire Centre for Public Policy, a taxpayer watchdog group in New York, found no evidence of Mr Giuliani ever filing to receive a pension.
Had he applied, he would have been eligible for approximately $26,000 per year once he turned 62.
Graig Graziosi reports:
Mr Giuliani said he ‘didn’t know how to go about’ applying for a pension
Nick Akerman writes:
When it comes to electing the president, majority voter approval is not a fundamental precept in the Constitution. From its inception, the Constitution established specific non-negotiable qualifications for eligibility to serve as president: that “[n]o person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
A president elected twice is prohibited by the 22nd Amendment from being elected for a third term. It is not up to the voters to decide whether any president can serve a third term. The myth that the voters have unfettered selection of the president is of course upended by the Constitution’s electoral college voting system that allows a minority of the country’s voters to select the president.
Continue reading the full article
Donald Trump thanked everyone for coming to Mar-a-Lago for the extravagant New Year’s Eve affair — featuring performances from Vanilla Ice and Steve Clark, who sang a heartfelt version of “God Bless the USA”.
Mr Trump said all of his kids were there, but Melania was not. The former first lady was with her “very ill” mother at the hospital, he explained.
He then touted the popularity of his own event. “They’re scalping tickets. Can you believe it? They’re getting $10,000 a ticket! My members, I know my members, they’re rich but they’re cheap as hell. If they knew they’d get $10,000, they’d be out of here in two seconds,” Mr Trump joked.
The 2024 frontrunner then shifted to politics: “We’re going to have a fantastic year. Our country has gone to hell but we’re going to turn it around, we’re going to turn it around quickly.”
Noting the upcoming Iowa caucus, he said, “Here we go, we have to win it a third time!”
The right for reproductive healthcare, including contraceptives and abortions, is a political issue for conservatives who are strategising how to win over voters – a majority of which agree that Americans have a right to access it.
Despite the ban on abortions having real-life health consequences for millions in the US, and a potential ban on contraceptives sparking fears of similar outcomes, conservative political consultant Kellyanne Conway is advising Republicans to get friendlier with contraceptives all while she mocks abortions.
In December, Ms Conway held a meeting with GOP members and staff in Congress as well as campaigns to advise them to advocate for birth control in order to ease voters’ fears about limiting access to contraception, according to Politico.
Ms Conway said the strategy would undermine Democrats’ narrative that Republicans are attacking women’s health choices, Fox News reported.
Ariana Baio reports.
Conway publicly mocked abortions but also pushed Republicans to create a cohesive narrative around contraceptives when campaigning in 2024
ABC 27 reports:
A lawsuit has been filed in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court to remove Republican U.S. House Representative Scott Perry from the 2024 ballot due to the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
The lawsuit, which was filed on January 2 by Harrisburg-area activist and former congressional candidate Gene Stilp, calls for Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Al Schmidt to remove Perry from the ballot ahead of the spring’s 10th Congressional District primary.

The lawsuit alleges Perry helped push conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen and advanced efforts to replace the Attorney General with a Trump loyalist.
“Scott Perry was a leading proponent of using the January 6, 2021 Congressional presidential election certification process to disrupt the transfer of presidential administration from Trump to Biden,” says the lawsuit, sighting the FBI’s seizure of Perry’s cellphone records and other accusations made against Perry following the January 6 attack.
The lawsuit also requests a referral of “information of any possible criminal activity by Scott Perry or any other party discovered in this case to the Pennsylvania Attorney General for prosecution.”
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Donald Trump at a campaign event
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