Closing summary
A three-judge federal appeals court panel sounded skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s attorney that he is immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election because he was president at the time. That didn’t stop Trump from doubling down on his defense in brief remarks to reporters after the hearing wrapped up, while also giving something of a preview of the message he will bring voters in the general election campaign.
Here’s what else happened today:
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for complications related to treatment for prostate cancer, the Pentagon announced. Four House Republicans who served as military pilots called on him to resign for waiting days to tell Joe Biden of his illness.
Robert Menendez, New Jersey’s Democratic senator who is facing charges for allegedly accepting bribes from foreign countries, again proclaimed his innocence.
Fani Willis, the district attorney who indicted Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a lawyer her office hired, an attorney for one of the co-defendants alleged.
Presidents need immunity to do their jobs, Trump argued, while referencing the legal dubiousness of Barack Obama’s drone strike campaign.
Special counsel Jack Smith and Trump both turned up for the immunity hearing at the Washington DC federal appeals court.
White House says Biden found out about Austin prostate cancer 'this morning', ordered review of procedures for cabinet secretary absences
Joe Biden learned “this morning” that defense secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized with complications stemming from treatment for prostate cancer, national security council spokesman John Kirby said at today’s White House press briefing.
The Pentagon announced the diagnosis publicly in a statement this afternoon. Austin has been criticized for waiting days to inform Biden he had been hospitalized, and some congressional Republicans have called for his resignation.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has asked all its cabinet-level agencies to review their procedures for handling instances where secretaries have to temporarily hand authority to their deputies. She also reiterated that Biden had no plans to replace Austin.
“The president has complete confidence in the secretary,” Jean-Pierre said.
'We could have done a better job' – Pentagon spokesman
Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder sounded contrite at today’s press briefing, when pressed on the news that defense secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for complications related to prostate cancer treatment. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: "It seems, frankly, like you were deceived by telling everyone that it was an elective medical procedure...It doesn't elective if he had prostate cancer and this was treating it."@PentagonPresSec: "We could have done a better job last week." pic.twitter.com/sEk9wnZrYZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2024
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A group of four Republican former military pilots who are currently serving in the House have called on Lloyd Austin to resign or be fired for not promptly notifying Joe Biden of his hospitalization.
“This failure to notify the proper officials is an extraordinary breach of protocol, and at most, dereliction of duty,” August Pfluger, Jake Ellzey, Mike Garcia and Scott Franklin wrote in a letter to the president. “It is unacceptable and unconscionable that the principal cabinet member responsible for U.S. national security would be absent without notice of leave, designating an alternative chain of command, or making relevant Members of Congress and the Executive Branch aware of such an absence.”
They continued:
Secretary Austin’s duties require his availability at a moment’s notice to respond to potential national security crises. We believe Secretary Austin’s blatant violation of the Pentagon’s Principles of Information and serious lapse in judgment warrants his immediate resignation, as well as the resignation of any staff involved in covering up his hospitalization. If he does not resign, he should be immediately dismissed.
The White House has said Biden does not plan to ask Lloyd for his resignation.
Pentagon says defense secretary Austin was hospitalized after complications from prostate surgery treatment – report
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized last week after complications stemming from a procedure to treat recently detected prostate cancer, CBS News reports, citing a Pentagon press release:
The Pentagon releases a detailed statement about Secretary Austin’s health. He was admitted to the ICU with complications from a treatment for prostate cancer: pic.twitter.com/z7eJuz5KCe
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) January 9, 2024
Austin was criticized for waiting days before informing the White House that he had been hospitalized. The defense secretary is supposed to be constantly available to respond to threats.
Despite the criticism, Joe Biden’s spokeswoman yesterday said the president continues to have confidence in Austin:
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Greg Pence, a Republican congressman for Indiana and former vice-president Mike Pence’s brother, will not run for re-election, he said on Tuesday.
He is the 16th House Republican to announce their departure during or at the end of their current term. He did not give a reason for standing down.
— Rep. Greg Pence (@RepGregPence) January 9, 2024
“In 2017, I ran for Congress because I was Ready to Serve Again. As a former Marine Officer, I approached the job with purpose,” he said in a statement posted to X.
“After three terms, I’ve made the decision to not file for reelection. To the voters in Indiana’s 6th district – it is a privilege and honor to represent you”.
Updated
The reviews are in on Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s state of the state speech this morning, and the widely held view among critics is that it was aimed more at voters in Iowa.
The Republican presidential hopeful, who needs a decent showing in next week’s Iowa caucuses to retain any hope of catching the runaway leader Donald Trump in the primary race, began with attacks on Joe Biden and his favorite hobby horse topics, the economy, immigration and crime.
He spoke of the southern border, Washington DC, San Francisco, Illinois, Chicago and California before his first mention of Florida, a boast of how many manufacturing jobs he claimed to have generated in his home state.
Some issues in Florida important to voters, including the soaring cost of home insurance, were relegated to towards the end of his speech, as was the taking of credit for the legislature’s removal of sales tax on many baby items, a Democrat-led initiative.
Lauren Book, leader of Florida’s Senate Democrats, was unequivocal in her assessment of DeSantis’s address, saying it “fails to grasp the reality Floridians are living with – and struggling with – on a daily basis”.
DeSantis just delivered a State of the State speech that fails to grasp the reality Floridians are living with — and struggling with — on a daily basis. Floridians deserve the Governor’s full attention. Not the voters of Iowa. pic.twitter.com/5q4ZsrJ1j6
— Lauren Book (@LeaderBookFL) January 9, 2024
The Guardian’s Oliver Milman has news of developments in Georgia, where Donald Trump is facing felony charges for election interference:
One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in his Georgia election interference case has alleged that Fani Willis – the district attorney leading the proceeding – has been “engaged in a personal, romantic relationship” with one of the top prosecutors she brought in for the case.
In a court filing seeking to have charges against him dismissed, an attorney for Michael Roman – an ex-staffer of the former president – has accused Willis of intentionally failing to disclose a relationship with the prosecutor, Nathan Wade, and personally benefiting from his appointment to the case.
The filing offers no evidence of the relationship, instead stating “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship”. It alleges that the supposed couple have used legal fees from the case to fund trips to Florida, Napa Valley and a cruise to the Caribbean.
Read the full story:
Democrats in Maine have voted down a Republican effort to impeach Shenna Bellows, the top election official who removed Donald Trump from the state’s presidential ballot.
A House vote along party lines defeated the move 80-60, the Associated Press reports. Bellows called the impeachment measure “political theater” and has promised to abide by any legal ruling on her decision to keep Trump off Maine’s 5 March primary ballot.
Maine’s supreme court is set to hear an appeal.
Republicans say her decision disenfranchised more than 300,000 voters in Maine who chose Trump in the last election. “She is not a judge. She is not a jury. And I believe that the people feel absolutely disenfranchised,” state House representative Katrina Smith said.
Updated
The day so far
A three-judge federal appeals court panel sounded skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s attorney that he is immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election because he was president at the time. That didn’t stop Trump from doubling down on his claim in brief remarks to reporters after the hearing wrapped up, while also giving something of a preview of the message he will bring voters in the general election campaign.
Here’s what else happened today so far:
Robert Menendez, New Jersey’s Democratic senator who is facing charges for allegedly accepting bribes from foreign countries, again proclaimed his innocence.
Presidents need immunity to do their jobs, Trump argued, in a reference to the legal dubiousness of Barack Obama’s drone strike campaign.
Special counsel Jack Smith and Trump both turned up for the immunity hearing at the Washington DC federal appeals court.
Indicted senator Menendez says he 'received nothing' from Qatar after new charges
Speaking of politicians facing legal trouble, New Jersey’s Democratic senator Robert Menendez went to the chamber’s floor today to proclaim his innocence of recently filed charges alleging he worked for Qatari interests:
“I have received nothing, absolutely nothing, from the government of Qatar ... The government's principal allegation of what I supposedly did for Qatar was to support a Senate resolution.”
— The Recount (@therecount) January 9, 2024
— Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) slams the second superseding indictment against him pic.twitter.com/msbIum7EjF
Federal prosecutors indicted Menendez last year for allegedly accepting cash, gold bars and other gifts in exchange for using his position to assist the Egyptian government. Here’s more on the latest charges:
While he dedicated much of his remarks after the appeals court hearing to criticizing Joe Biden, Donald Trump did make a somewhat revealing comment on why it is necessary for presidents to have immunity from prosecution.
“You can’t have a president without immunity … as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Trump said. Special counsel Jack Smith contends that Trump’s attempt to meddle with the 2020 election results in key states, among other tactics, were not part of his presidential duties, and he is therefore able to be prosecuted.
Trump, however, compared the argument to his predecessor Barack Obama’s use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists, which some legal scholars have warned may have been unlawful.
“If I wasn’t given immunity, then other presidents would be talked about today. President Obama with the drone strikes, which were very bad. There were mistakes, terrible mistakes … You really can’t put a president in that position,” he said.
The Trump administration had its own record of questionable drone strikes.
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Trump then shifted to recounting all the ways in which Joe Biden failed as president.
It was as good a summary as any of how the former president will campaign against the current one, assuming Trump, as expected, again wins the Republican nomination.
Trump kicked his diatribe off by remarking on Biden’s, “horrible job he’s done at the border, where our country is being destroyed”, eschewing his recent rhetoric that has been compared to things white supremacists say.
He next shared his thoughts on Biden’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The lowest moment, I think, in the history of our country was Afghanistan, the way we withdrew, not that we withdrew, but the way we withdrew with shame, we surrendered,” Trump said. Left unmentioned was his own administration’s role in paving the way for the pullout, which has left lasting damage on Biden’s approval ratings.
Despite presiding over a botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, a key message Trump will bring to voters in the months to come is that the country and the world were less racked by crisis and hardship during his presidency, and he used his remarks to press that point.
“You wouldn’t have inflation but much more importantly, you wouldn’t have had the Ukraine situation with Russia, you wouldn’t have had the attack on Israel. You’d have a much different economy right now, have a great economy and we would be respected all over the world, the way we were just three years ago,” Trump said.
Updated
Trump: 'Most people agree that we're entitled ... to immunity'
In remarks to reporters in Washington DC after appeals court judges expressed skepticism at his claims of immunity , Donald Trump doubled down on his argument he should not face charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
“What a sad situation it is. I want to thank you, everybody, for the fairness. We’ve been covered very fairly. Most people agree that we’re entitled, as a president, to immunity,” Trump said.
Updated
With cameras barred from the federal courtroom, no photographs are available of the appeals court hearing this morning over Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
But a sketch artist was there to produce this image of Trump, seated on the right, and special counsel Jack Smith, depicted as seated to his left, listening to the lawyers argue before the three-judge panel:
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Cameron Joseph report, the three judges who heard from Donald Trump’s lawyers about why he should be considered immune from charges related to overturning the election were skeptical of their arguments:
Donald Trump’s arguments that he can’t be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results because it involved actions he took while still president appeared unconvincing to a federal appeals court on Tuesday, which repeatedly questioned such an expansive view of executive power.
The three-judge panel at the US court of appeals for the DC circuit expressed skepticism with the principal contention of Trump’s lawyer that the former president enjoyed absolute immunity from prosecution, and could only be charged if he had been convicted in an impeachment trial.
Such an interpretation of executive power would mean presidents could hypothetically self-pardon, sell military secrets or order the US Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate political rivals and escape accountability simply by claiming they were official acts, suggested Florence Pan, the circuit judge.
Trump’s lawyer initially sought to dodge whether presidents could be criminally prosecuted in such scenarios, but eventually offered a “qualified yes” – though only if Trump had been impeached and convicted in the Senate first.
Karen Henderson, a George HW Bush circuit judge appointee, also seemed leery of Trump’s position. “I think it is paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law,” she told Sauer during her questioning.
Trump attended the court hearing in Washington. The decision that the DC circuit reaches, and how long it takes to issue a ruling, could carry profound implications for the viability of the scheduled March trial date that has been frozen pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal.
Updated
One of the most striking arguments of the just-concluded appeals court hearing on Donald Trump’s claim of immunity in the 2020 election subversion case came right at the beginning.
Judge Florence Pan wanted to know if Trump’s attorney John Sauer thought a president would be immune from prosecution if he, in his official capacity, ordered the military to assassinate a political rival. While it was never mentioned, the argument harkens back to Trump’s claim from 2016 that his supporters love him so much he could shoot somebody on New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose votes.
Sauer went on to argue that a president can only be prosecuted for official acts that Congress impeached and convicted them for. Trump was impeached by the House for the January 6 insurrection, but not convicted by the Senate. Here’s the back-and-forth:
CLIP: Exchange on immunity between DC Circuit Court Judge Florence Pan and D. John Sauer, attorney for former President Donald Trump.
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2024
Judge Pan: "Once you concede that presidents can be prosecuted under some circumstances your separation of powers argument falls away..." pic.twitter.com/QYT8KoILkh
Defense and prosecutors wrap up arguments in Trump immunity appeal
Arguments have just finished before the three-judge federal appeals court that will weigh whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for trying to block Joe Biden from taking office because the actions took place while he was president.
If the judges rule in favor of Trump, it could lead to the dropping of the criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Should they rule against the former president, his lawyers may appeal the issue to the supreme court.
Updated
Judge Florence Pan asked the government if this all boils down to whether Trump is right on his interpretation of the constitution’s impeachment judgment clause, which is that he can only be prosecuted if impeached and convicted.
Prosecutor James Pearce said that is basically the situation, but that Trump’s interpretation is wrong both textually and practically.
If a president sells pardons or assassinates a political rival and is acquitted in an impeachment trial, under Trump’s interpretation, there would be no further accountability. That’s both incorrect and scary, Pearce said.
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Justice department lawyer James Pearce tells the court that it has the authority to assume it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal and decide the case on its merits.
Pearce’s arguments comes after some anti-Trump third parties had said the DC circuit court lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal. If the judges had agreed, it would clear the way for Trump’s trial to continue.
Judge Florence Pan asked Pearce to elaborate.
Pearce says doing justice means “getting the law right”. Even if it was true that the court lacked jurisdiction, he argues the judges should decide the issue on its merits.
The judges are now hearing arguments from special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors.
Attorney James Pearce is arguing for the government.
Updated
Judge Karen Henderson gets into what the appeals court’s options are going forward.
Trump attorney John Sauer says he thinks the judges should remand the case back to the lower district court, with instructions to go through the indictment and consider whether each alleged act is an official act, or private conduct.
Sauer’s position is that private conduct can be prosecuted, but officials acts cannot, and that all the acts in the indictment are official acts.
Judge Karen Henderson moved on to what acts are official acts for a president, saying, “I think it’s paradoxical to say his constitutional duty to say that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate the law”.
Sauer replied that a president’s actions can never be examinable by the courts.
Judges Karen Henderson and Michelle Childs pressed John Sauer on comments Donald Trump uttered while in office, when he conceded that no former officeholder is immune from investigation and prosecution.
Senators might have relied on that to acquit Trump in the impeachment that followed the January 6 insurrection, Henderson said.
Sauer replied that he disagrees with the judges’ interpretation of that line, which has been memorialized in the congressional record. He says the term “officeholder” would pertain to lesser government officials, not the president, and, in any case, Trump was referring to being investigated generally.
Judge Florence Pan started off her questioning of Trump lawyer John Sauer by offering a novel scenario.
“Could a president who ordered Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival and was not impeached, could he be subjected to criminal prosecution?” Pan asked.
After some back and forth, Sauer said, “Qualified yes, if he’s impeached and convicted first.”
Updated
Circuit judge Florence Pan is putting Trump lawyer John Sauer in a tough spot.
After Sauer said that presidents can be prosecuted so long as there’s impeachment and conviction in the Senate, Pan asks if he is conceding that presidents actually do not have absolute immunity, and that if president can be prosecuted, don’t “all of your separation of powers and policy arguments fall away”?
Live television cameras are not allowed in federal courtrooms.
But live audio is, and you can listen to the back and forth between Donald Trump’s lawyers and the three judges at the top of the page. The former president is not expected to address the court.
Federal appeals judges begin hearing Trump immunity arguments
Donald Trump’s lawyers have begun making their arguments to a panel of three federal appeals judges that the former president cannot be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election because the events took place while he was president.
The three federal judges hearing the case are now in the courtroom.
They are Michelle Childs, who was appointed by Joe Biden, Karen Henderson, a George HW Bush appointee, and Florence Pan, another Biden appointee.
Donald Trump’s lawyers have arrived in the courtroom where a federal appeals court will consider whether he is immune from charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Representing Trump today is former Missouri solicitor general John Sauer. Also in attendance for the former president are lawyers John Lauro, Greg Singer, Emil Bove and Stanley Woodward.
There is at least one anti-Trump demonstrator waiting in the foul weather to greet the former president, WUSA9 reports:
One lone demonstrator braves the rain outside of the US Appeals Court as former President Trump arrives for his hearing at 9:30.
— Jess Arnold (@JessArnoldTV) January 9, 2024
Judges will decide if presidential immunity precludes him from prosecution on election interference charges. @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/cvPPGUbgRc
Since it’s 42 degrees Fahrenheit and raining in Washington DC today, do not expect the lively crowds that gathered for Donald Trump’s August arraignment to convene once again for his potentially pivotal immunity hearing.
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, who is covering the hearing from within the E Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse, saw no supporters, protesters or lookie-loos outside, and this morning’s wire photos of the building show a pretty unremarkable scene:
Trump to argue for immunity from January 6 case before Washington DC appeals court
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is taking a break from the campaign trail today to appear in a Washington DC federal appeals court, where his lawyers will attempt to convince a three-judge panel that his “presidential immunity” prevents him from facing trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election. The stakes will be the highest of any court hearing for Trump since he was first indicted on the charges by special counsel Jack Smith in August, and if the former president prevails, Smith’s prosecution will end. We do not expect to get a decision today, and whichever way the three judges – two appointed by Joe Biden, and one by George HW Bush, rule, chances are the issue will go to the supreme court.
Trump is not required to attend the hearing, but is using the proceedings as an opportunity to juice his claims of political persecution ahead of Monday’s Iowa Republican caucuses, which he is expected to win. “I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise … running our Country”, the former president wrote yesterday on his Truth Social network. The hearing kicks off at 9.30am eastern time.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Nikki Haley’s support has peaked in New Hampshire, or perhaps not. Ahead of the state’s 23 January Republican primary, a Boston Globe/Suffolk University/USA Today poll reports she has 26% support compared with Trump’s 46%. But a CNN poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows a much closer race, with Trump at 39%, and Haley at 32%.
The House returns today after the holiday break, and we get a better sense of whether rightwing lawmakers are prepared to reject a framework announced over the weekend to prevent a government shutdown.
Joe Biden has no public events, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 2pm.
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