any moment now donald trump will be arriving at the courthouse where a three judge panel will hear arguments, can the former president be held criminally responsible for his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss or does he have immunity from prosecution. this is special coverage, i m layer ar laura coates. and i m kaitlan collins. this could ultimately change the landscape of what presidents are allowed do. trump is foregoing the campaign trail to be at these oral arguments as he claim that s has absolute immunity, that his actions constitute official acts that he took while in office. of course i was entitled as president of the united states and commander in chief to immunity. i m entitled to immunity. every president has immunity. especially one that did the job i did. i did a great job. and i wasn t working for myself, i was working for the country. i wasn t campaigning. election was long over. wasn t campaigning. i was looking for voter fraud, something that i have to
cameras available to be there. he made good time. if you look at this brief, it is by and large a very substantive brief. there is a little hyperbole that sneaks in there. this is all a joe biden setup. but by and large they are taking on the issues that they will be asked about today. and it is so important to walk through the charge. the actual substance of what they are being asked to decide today. it is not just the idea of was there presidential immunity. trump s team trying to suggest that he had double jeopardy that is attached here. and that is an important point we ll hear a lot about today. he is suggesting that because he s been impeached by congress, he can t be prosecuted criminally outside of that context. what do you make of that particularly given your experience? i think most serious legal
him when it comes to what this could mean for him legally. incredibly significant. but also we re less than a week now away from the iowa caucuses. and the former president making the choice to be in the court instead of on the campaign trail. what have you heard from your sources so why? . reporter: absolutely he does not have to here. he could be in iowa, but he has chosen to go to court. as you noted, this is not mandatory, but this doesn t go this goes to his narrative that all of this is election interference, that this is political prosecution. and in fact he sent out a text message last night in which he said that he was burning the midnight oil but not because of the election, but instead because joe biden was forcing him to go to court. he wrote crooked joe forcing me into a courtroom to defend my right to presidential immunity, a right granted to every other president in history. of course as we know, no one is forcing him to be here and it
this is one week before the iowa caucuses. he posted that if he can be prosecuted, even though that he is arguing that he can t, then joe biden can as well. this is what he said. joe would be right for indictment. so you are saying that trump shouldn t get immunity but joe biden would? i didn t do anything like he did. i ran a great country. and so it is important because is that political calculation. his right to make that choice to go to court as he is going today. but it is a political calculation that he is making here and it also seems to undercut his argument that he has presidential immunity and he can t be prosecuted for anything that he did in office. he is threatened. he is saying if you indict me and i m elected, i m indicts joe