in the united states and around the world. i m john avlon in for kasie hunt. it is friday, december 22, yes, i m wearing a candy cane tie. stunning new revelations into just how far donald trump went to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. a new report from the detroit news alleging that then president trump pressured two election officials in wayne county, michigan to not certify the results of the vote, that is according to audio recordings they have reviewed for a phone call trump made in 2020 following the election. the newspaper reports that he told them we can t let these people take our country away from us and everybody knows detroit is crooked as hell. joining me now, joey jackson. thanks for getting up early for us. this recording seems to go to the core of the case jack smith is building against trump, namely that he actively conspired to overturn the 2020 election. and you remember of course that phone call pressuring georgia election officials to find him vote
supreme court says, not so fast, to special counsel jack smith, giving the former president s go-slow legal strategy a big boost. the former president says he knows nothing about hitler, while repeating and defending his hitler-like language. plus a survivor of the october 7th massacre and her remarkable journey. good evening. anderson is off tonight. and we begin with the supreme court s decision not to decide, at least just yet, the central question that could invalidate many of the charges against the former president. namely, does donald trump enjoy immunity from prosecution for actions he took as president? the judge in his january 6th trial ruled he did not. special counsel jack smith asked the supreme court to bypass the d.c. circuit and take it now. and today the court said no. cnn s katelyn polantz joins us with more. kate lynne, we have a decision, not a clear understanding of an explanation of why the justices decided this. walk us through what we know, how man
the jailed russian opposition leader has been missing for two weeks and suddenly turns up. what his legal team is saying this morning. new video this morning of thousands of migrants starting their trek from southern mexico to the u.s. border. secretary of state tony blinken is headed to mexico city this week to address the crisis. a ground breaking surgery helping a young girl find her voice for the first time and opening up a whole new world to this 9-year-old and her family. i m kate bolduan with sara sidner, john berman is off today. this is a very christmas cnn news central. new this morning, russian opposition critic alexei navalny has been found. the head of his russian foundation says navalny is in a penal colony in the far reaches of northwestern siberia. his team has been trying to locate him for at least two weeks after he was suddenly and without warning moved from detention near moscow. cnn s nada bashir is following all the developments for us. what ar
the release includes infamous former defence contractor leonard glenn francis known as fat leonard. he s at the center of one of the us navy s largest corruption cases. in exchange the us has freed alex saab, an aide and top ally to venezuela s president nicolas maduro, accused of laundering money on behalf of the maduro government, which he denies. mr maduro is also releasing 20 venezuelan political prisoners. it s all part of the biden administration s efforts to improve relations with venezuela, and push mr maduro to hold fair elections next year. earlier, i spoke with our reporter mimi swaby about the deal. president byers was emphasising that this was all about encouraging venezuela to hold free and fair elections. how much leveraged you think the biden administration has in that regard? this is yet another sign of significant flowing between relations between the us and venezuela after months of really high level negotiations. this comes as biden is grappling with a
today on inside politics, firing back. the donald trump is on a social media tear sending dozens of posts and reposts that kicked him off the ballot in colorado. republican rivals are standing with him. president biden is grappling with a critical decision on israel. the security council is set to vote on a resolution to stop the fighting in gaza. the big question will the u.s. block it. is and congress is paralyzed. lawmakers heading home for the holidays after one of the moegs unpreductive years in history in 2024 might be even worse. acosta. let s go behind the headlines and inside politics. we want to start with jack smith responding to trump s legal team trying to delay the january 6th case. the special counsel is stress ing the gravity and urging the supreme court to immediately hear the dispute over presidential immunity. senior correspondent katelyn polantz is following all the developments for us. what are we hearing about the special counsel s request? the