washington. glad to have you. here right now in south carolina, there are major developments in alex murdaugh s double murder trial. the prosecution now respond ing after the defense presented its closing arguments yesterday. defense attorney jim griffin made an emotional plea when wrapping up his presentation. there are two words that justice demands this thises case and those two words are not guilty. the oath you have taken in this case it requires a verdict not dwlt. on behalf of alex, of buster, on behalf of maggie and on behalf of my friend paul, i respectfully request that you do not compound a family tragedy with another thank you. just before closing arguments began, the judge remove d a jurr for discussing the case outside of the trial. diane gallagher is outside of the court in south carolina. diane, what more did the defense say today as they were presenting to the jury in these final hours of this trial? reporter: jim griffin spoke for about 2 hours and 15
welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states and all around the world. ahead on cnn newsroom, u.s. military taking down another object flying over american waters just days after the downing of the suspected chinese supply balloon. plus george santos claiming he s ard at work despite controversy swirling around hum. what he is or isn t doing on the job. we re one day away from super bowl lvii. we ll take you live for a preview of the big game. a u.s. fight er jet shot an unidentified object out of the sky friday off the coast of alaska on i d s order. there s significant differences between this object and the chinese supply balloon shot down from the atlantic last saturday. the object friday had no surveillance equipment ask steer itself. it was flying 40,000 feet over alaska s northern coast. it posed a threat to civilian aircraft. the debris field has been mapped and officials hope to learn more from the wreckage, but they aren t sure what it is or who
violence on january. i ll read you what says. no part of an official responsibility includes the incite mment of imminent violen. what this means is the justice department is telling the appeals court here in washington that is considering these cases that the president doesn t have absolute immunity against these lawsuits. a more narrow ruling that the president is taking that he should have some immunity for things having to do with his political speech. stay on top of that. appreciate your time. thank you. i m abbi phillip in
just in to cnn, the justice department says the former president trump cannot claim total presidential immunity in civil cases related to january 6th. the doj is urge ing an appea court to reject the claims and let some lawsuits move trd. evan perez is joining us with this report ing. tell us about this doj brief. this is a big deal. the justice department is saying the former president is not entitled to complete an absolute immunity with the lawsuits. these are lawsuits filed by democratic members of congress, members of the capitol police, who were victims of the violence on january 6th. so the justice department is taking the position that certainly presidents have a level of immunity while they are
in office and after they leave office. but in this case because of the bryce vooi lens involved, it s not the same thing. so really just a part of what it says in the brief filed in court today with the appeals court, no part of a president s official responsibilities includes the incite mment of imminent violen. and the jgts department is taking a position that they want the appeals court to issue a narrow ruling. they want them to essentially allow for perhaps the president to claim can immunity in other things. plit kl or electoral speech, but not for things related to this. they are not taking a position on whether the former president has immunity on criminal matters. so that s something that is going to be very relevant as the investigations continue into january 6th. something that the special counsel is looking at. further evidence that this is