hi, everyone. merry christmas eve to you and welcome to cnn this morning. i m amara walker. i m danny freeman in for victor blackwell. thanks for being here. here s what we re watching for you. new overnight, attorneys for donald trump with a late-night court filing urging a federal appeals court to throw out the fed federal election subversion case against him. could the former president s claim of absolute immunity work? and what does it mean for the 2024 campaign and piresiden biden? we ll ask an expert who say democrats need a healthy dose of realism. and israel s war with hamas rages. we ll speak with a pastor in bethlehem on how the birthplace of jesus is marking the holiday without the usual celebrations. new this morning, president trump s legal team, the former president trump s laelegal team arguing presidential immunity should clear him of wrongdoing in his federal election subversion case in washington, d.c. they say he was merely working in his offici
me. i m fredericka witfield. we re getting stunning new details today about what the israeli militaries calls a tragic, tragic event. three israeli hostages were killed by israeli defense forces in gaza. today we learned that they were waving a white flag as they approached an idf brigade on friday. despite that, they were gunned town. meantime, president biden s national security advisor says israel will soon move to a new phase in its war against hamas. priscilla alvarez is at the white house for us. what does the white house hope to see in this new phase? reporter: they want to see more targets and precise strikes. this has been an ongoing concern for the white house. the mass destruction and deaths of innocent civilians in gaza has started its ground operations in that region. what has happened over the course of time is pressure from the white house, discussions behind the scenes to move towards a targeted strike. now, jake sullivan was in israel this week. he met wi
i m a little anxious, i m a little excited. i m gonna be emotional, she s gonna be emotional, but it s gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness. oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets. you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we begin the hour with the biden campaign linking donald trump to adolf hitler, saying the former president parroted adolf hitler at a new hampshire rally last night. that s in response to trump once again accusing immigrants of poisoning the blood of the country, an echo of the vile rhetoric used by nazi germany to justify the holocaust. they re poisoning the blood of our country. that s what they ve done. they ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not j
school now. because in a way, we have all become law students. how could all of this legal trouble just maybe fade away? i will explain to you, but don t worry. no pop quiz. no socratic method. that s all coming up. but first, i want to look at what we have learned just in the past few hours. first, kenneth chesbro coming back to maybe haunt the former president. he is the ex-pro trump lawyer whose claim to fame is helping to cook up the fake elector s plot and who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the election interference case. well now, he is talking to investigators in michigan, nevada, wisconsin as well as georgia. if we were in an old time gangster movie, you could say he was singing like a canary. this is what he told michigan prosecutors about a photo op gone wrong in the oval office way back in december of 2020. i ended up explaining that arizona was still hypothetically possible. it was i think clear in a way that maybe hadn t been before that we had un
a greater risk to civilians. what u.s. intel is saying about how many are being used. and in about face for the former new york mayor. rudy giuliani backing down from testifying at his defamation trial. closing arguments underway as we speak. following these major developing stories and more all coming here to cnn news central. counterterror agencies have been on high alert in wake of the hamas attacks on october 7th and the ongoing war with israel. today, officials of several european countries have made terror-related arrests. details are still coming in, but here is what we know as of right now. german authorities say they have arrested long-standing hamas members for an alleged terror plot. officials in denmark have apparently made what they call unrelated terrorists. let s bring in cnn s fred pleitgen in berlin. there are so many moving parts here, it s a little confusing. tell us what we are learning from germany about all of this. reporter: first of all you