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Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, in Reno, Nev. In a brief filed Saturday, Trump asked a federal appeals court to dismiss an election interference case against him, arguing he's immune from prosecution. Godofredo A. Vsquez/AP hide caption

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, in Reno, Nev. In a brief filed Saturday, Trump asked a federal appeals court to dismiss an election interference case against him, arguing he's immune from prosecution.

WASHINGTON Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a federal appeals court to throw out a case alleging interference in the 2020 election, arguing that he is immune from prosecution.

"Under our system of separated powers, the Judicial Branch cannot sit in judgment over a President's official acts," they wrote in a brief filed Saturday night with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The move came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to fast track a dispute over Trump's immunity from prosecution.

Special counsel Jack Smith made that plea for urgency in a bid to keep his criminal case against Trump on track for trial starting March 4. The election interference case is on hold while the question over immunity plays out. The D.C. appeals court has agreed to work quickly, and oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 9.

In their brief, Trump's lawyers argue that no current or former president may be criminally prosecuted for "official acts" unless they have been impeached and convicted by the Senate. Since that did not happen to Trump, they write, he has "absolute immunity."

They also call the indictment "unlawful and unconstitutional" and warn that it "threatens to launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our Nation for many decades to come."

Special counsel Smith has alleged that Trump went well beyond official duties as he waged a months long campaign to overturn the 2020 election results, falsely asserting that the vote had been stolen. His legal team pursued dozens of lawsuits in states where Trump lost, and courts repeatedly rejected the claims of election fraud.

At stake in the arguments over immunity is not only whether Smith's criminal case proceeds, but also if it does how far into election season it may be pushed.

Trump would be required to appear in court during arguments, which would limit his election appearances. That could also offer grist for his contention that the case is politically motivated. If the trial were delayed until after November's vote, and if Trump won, he would be able to have the charges against him dropped.

In all, Trump faces 91 criminal charges in four different cases, and his legal team has sought to delay all of them until after the election.

The Saturday filing asks that if the appeals court rules against the former president, that it holds off on implementing that decision while Trump considers requesting a review from the full appeals court or the Supreme Court.

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Trump asks appeals court to toss election interference case, arguing that he's immune - NPR

The Colorado Supreme Court in Denver hears arguments on Dec. 6 regarding former President Donald Trump's eligibility for the state's primary ballot. David Zalubowski/AP hide caption

The Colorado Supreme Court in Denver hears arguments on Dec. 6 regarding former President Donald Trump's eligibility for the state's primary ballot.

Violent rhetoric is up in some online spaces where supporters of former President Donald Trump are reacting to news that he is ineligible to appear on Colorado's primary ballot.

Personal information, including phone numbers and addresses, of the Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled against Trump are circulating on some far-right platforms. So, too, are calls for his base to take up arms.

"We saw trending the terms 'insurrection' and 'civil war' really within hours of the Colorado decision," said Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit public interest research group based in Washington, D.C.

To extremism researchers who monitor online spaces for indications of planned violence, the uptick is not surprising. Since Trump left the White House and as he has come under greater legal pressure relating to his personal businesses and the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, these spikes have become somewhat predictable and more frequent.

"Each incident, each indictment of former President Trump, every negative development that's related to him, every time even something happens with President Biden or the Democratic Party, where people think that the Bidens have gotten away with it, has contributed to this environment [where his supporters think] that the current government is out to get supporters of Trump," said Katherine Keneally, who heads threat analysis and prevention at the nonprofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue-U.S., which monitors the threat landscape online.

Keneally said the most incendiary posts were found on alt-tech platforms such as Gab, Truth Social and Patriots.win. But Jones said it was also worth noting that some of the chatter bled onto X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We're seeing the normalization of violent rhetoric, the dehumanization, this idea that democracy is broken," he said.

Both experts said that they have, so far, not seen anything online to suggest a credible or imminent threat. But they said that in an environment where an increasing proportion of Americans believe violence may be warranted to save the country, vigilance is still needed. As an example, they cited the case of a man who attacked an FBI field office in Cincinnati after the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

And even separate from the concern over violence, there is also growing alarm that the normalization of threats, harassment and vitriolic attacks may be eroding American democracy.

"One of the goals of this type of inciting rhetoric or encouraging or even allowing dangerous speech to flourish is that you can make people feel less comfortable participating in day-to-day democracy," said Shannon Hiller, executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University. "The proliferation of violent rhetoric like this and the unwillingness of leaders to condemn it can create that chilling effect."

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Colorado Trump ruling leads to rise in violent online rhetoric - NPR

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday night at a campaign stop in Iowa that he has not read "Mein Kampf," the manifesto written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Trump made the statement following recent criticism comparing his words over undocumented immigrants to those used by Hitler in the lead-up to World War II.

While he distanced himself from the controversial book, Trump doubled down on his previous comments about undocumented immigrants.

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign event on Dec. 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

"They're destroying the blood of our country," Trump said about the waves of migrants who have crossed the border. "They're ruining our country. And it's true they're destroying the blood of our country. That's what they're doing. They're destroying our country."

Throughout the 2024 election cycle, the former president has said people who cross the border illegally are "poisoning the blood" on multiple occasions. Recently, he has ramped up the use of the phrase during his latest campaign speeches. This has drawn criticism from those who claim that Hitler and white supremacists use similar language, pointing to the fact that Hitler wrote about "blood poisoning" in "Mein Kampf."

After telling the crowd he had never read Hitler's book, Trump went on to say that Hitler used the phrase "in a much different way."

"They don't like it when I said that -- and I never read 'Mein Kampf.' They said, 'Oh, Hitler said that' - in a much different way. No, they're coming from all over the world. People all over the world," Trump told those at his Iowa event.

Trump continued to use disparaging language when talking about immigrants who have crossed the border, accusing them of bringing in crime and destroying "the fabric of our country."

"They could bring in disease that's going to catch on in our country, but they do bring in crime. They're destroying the blood of our country. They're destroying the fabric of our country," he said.

The remarks were made during Trump's Christmas rally in Waterloo, Iowa, where the festivities were outshined by breaking legal news regarding Trump's eligibility to appear on Colorado's presidential primary ballot.

The state Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that the former president is ineligible to run for president in 2024 based on the 14th Amendment's insurrection ban, stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump's campaign quickly vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Despite news of the ruling breaking roughly an hour before Trump took the stage, the former president did not directly mention it. Instead, he stuck to his usual unsubstantiated claims that President Joe Biden is responsible for the investigations into him while accusing Biden and Democrats of being "willing to violate the U.S. Constitution at levels never seen before in order to win this election."

"Joe Biden is a threat to democracy, he's a threat," Trump continued. "They're weaponizing law enforcement for high-level election interference because we're beating them so badly in the polls."

Trump kicked off his speech earlier in the night by attempting to lower expectations for Iowa caucus results while still boasting about his lead in the polls.

"This is really important -- our country's at stake. We have a country that's never been in trouble like it is right now. So get out and vote whether we're leading in the polls or not leading in the polls," Trump told his supporters.

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Trump claims he's never read Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' as he doubles down on anti-immigrant phrase - ABC News

The Senate fundraising arm of the Republican Party send blood pressure spiking on Christmas Eve in an attempt to juice a few more dollars out of the MAGA base.

Could Tucker Carlson be President Trumps running mate? read the subject line of a fundraising blast shortly after 3 p.m. on Sunday.

The body of the email boasted of TWO MAJOR announcements coming from the ex-Fox News star. Nothing in the email answered the question posed in the subject linea GOP curiosity gap, holiday editioninstead touting Carlsons rebrand under The Tucker Carlson Network, or TCN.

Earlier in the day, Carlson released a 7-minute interview with disgraced actor Kevin Spacey. Coincidentally, the pair discussed a 2024 ticket with Carlson serving as VP.

Its unclear if this fundraising ploy from the National Republican Senatorial Committee should be taken any more seriously.

Officials from the NRSC did not return a request for comment. Carlson also did not respond when reached by text message.

In a November podcast interview, Donald Trump said he would consider picking Carlson as his VP.

Carlson, who still holds the record for the most viewed cable news show in American history, responded to Trumps speculation by indicating he wouldnt necessarily love the vetting process involved.

The 54-year-old heir to a TV dinner and frozen poultry product fortune said at the time hes a total sucker for Trump, but also might have some things in his past hed prefer to hide.

I havent led a life that prepares a person for politics, Carlson, a Beltway fixture and still a highly influential voice in the modern GOP, told fellow Fox News expatriate Megyn Kelly on her podcast. I dont think I have any, like, horrible skeletons or anything. Its not that. Its just that thats not how my brain works. Ive never done anything like that. I cant imagine spending time with politicians.

Carlson said he also gets along with Trump really well, and [the] closer I am physically to Trump, like if Im with him in the room, I always love Trump and I think its impossible not to, and you know the experience, he told Kelly, whom Trump once called highly overrated (he also infamously insinuated she was menstruating during the first GOP debate of the 2016 campaign). Hes just charming, Carlson added.

For his part, Carlson privately called Trump a demonic force and a destroyer, said he hated him passionately, and was very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights following the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to text messages unearthed in discovery for Dominion Voting Systems $787 million lawsuit against Fox News.

Im really grateful for what I have, but I dont think, like, America needs me, Carlson told Kelly, rounding out the discussion around the previous VP speculation, and I dont want to become an egomaniac or a solipsist, and thats what you become when you start thinking that way.

Roger Sollenberger contributed reporting for this story.

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GOP Floats Tucker Carlson As Donald Trump's 2024 Vice President Pick - The Daily Beast

Its not unusual for Trump to survey donors, outside advisers and members of his Mar-a-Lago resort on personnel matters. He has also pressed allies for their impressions of other prominent Republicans in recent months including former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fl.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Arizona Republican Kari Lake.

But Haley has been the subject of his most recent focus.

Haleys polling surge has alarmed some staunch Trump confidants who are acutely aware that the former president pays close attention to survey data. In interviews and public appearances, they have emphatically swatted down the idea of Haley for vice president in hopes that Trump wont warm to the idea.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, who warned attendees at a conservative conference last weekend that the GOP hierarchy would try to push Trump to pick Haley, told POLITICO that the former ambassador used outdated Republican talking points and embraced Fox News-laundered neoliberal neocon policies that MAGA finds unacceptable.

Trumps campaign has dismissed any chatter of vice president picks as premature, maintaining that he is focused on winning the upcoming primary contests. A campaign spokesperson did not comment for this story. A Haley spokesperson declined to comment as well.

During a phone conversation with one ally about Haley, Trump indicated that he was aware of the criticisms of her but nonetheless wanted to get this persons take about the former ambassador, according to a person familiar with the call.

The two have had a complicated relationship. Haley backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over Trump in the 2016 Republican primary. But after he was elected, Trump picked her to be his U.N. ambassador, a post she held for two years. Haley broke sharply with Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, when she said Trump would be judged harshly by history.

But Haley would later try to patch things up. A few months after the Capitol siege, she said she wouldnt run for president in 2024 if Trump did. The former ambassador also tried to arrange a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago but was turned down by the former president, who was rankled by her criticism.

After the 2022 midterm elections, Haley ultimately decided to run for president. She broke the news to Trump, who at that point had already entered the race, in a phone call.

Within some conservative circles, there is an emerging belief that Haleys potential electoral strength polls show her leading former President Joe Biden nationally and in key battleground states by wide margins make her a conventional choice to serve as a running mate. Trump allies have moved swiftly to express their concerns that shes not aligned with his base. And theyve done so with little subtlety; deploying a full-scale media barrage of anti-Haley attacks.

Donald Trump Jr., the former presidents eldest son, took to Newsmax to declare he would go to great lengths to make sure his father didnt pick Haley. And Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host who is frequently in touch with the former president, said on a conservative podcast this week that he would advocate against a Trump-Haley ticket as strongly as I could.

Republican strategist Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to the former president, told POLITICO that he too would be personally opposed to such a selection, because I believe that [Haleys] views are so antithetically different than President Trumps views.

Stone stressed that he had not personally spoken to Trump about Haley.

Vice presidential picks are not typically made until right before the party convention, which will be held next summer. But the early pile-on against Haley underscores how Trumps base has begun to mobilize well ahead of schedule. To those in the MAGA wing of the party, the stakes are high: Whoever Trump selects could be seen as his heir apparent and a prospective future party leader. Trump, if elected, can only serve four years.

Trump himself has downplayed the importance of the vice president pick.

The one thing I would say, nobody ever votes for the vice president, Trump said earlier this year.

Haley has said that she has no interest in being anyone elses vice president and is confident she will continue to rise in the primaries.

Its not even a conversation, and it doesnt matter what candidate wants me to answer it: I dont play for second, Haley told Christian Broadcast Network. Its offensive when anybody says that, Oh, she wants to be vice president. You dont do something like this to be vice president. You dont sacrifice emotionally, mentally, physically with your family, everything to come in second.

That hasnt stopped one of her top rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, from suggesting otherwise. DeSantis has tried to distinguish himself from Haley by saying that she is not seriously running for president but rather to be Trumps vice president. His campaign on Tuesday launched a website, TrumpNikki2024.com.

Despite the relatively early stage of the race, the vice presidential posturing and speculation is already underway. Stefanik, one of Trumps most forceful defenders on Capitol Hill, visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago resort this week, and posted a picture on X of the two flashing a thumbs-up. And when Trump held a rally with Noem in September, a big-screen TV situated above them read Trump-Noem 2024.

How interested Trump is in Haley is not clear, and many of those close to the former president are skeptical he would actually pick her. They point out that he prizes loyalty and that Haley who Trump picked for the U.N. post ended up challenging Trump for the nomination after initially saying she wouldnt.

Trump has spent much of the past year focusing his attacks on DeSantis. But some Trump allies see indications that he might be willing to move against Haley, who has emerged as a favorite of a GOP donor class that is eager to stop Trump. Without explicitly naming Haley during a recent speech in New Hampshire, the former president assailed candidates who do the bidding of Wall Street and the Washington establishment.

It isnt the first time Haley has been mentioned as a prospective Trump veep pick. While running for reelection in Nov. 2019, Trump acknowledged rumors he would replace then-Vice President Mike Pence with Haley but shot down the idea that he would do so.

Some in the party see Haley as a potentially strong selection, and someone who has been able to appeal to a swath of the party beyond the MAGA set. During a recent appearance at The New York Times DealBook Summit, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that she would potentially add to Trumps base of supporters and that the eventual selection should be geared toward addition, not subtraction.

Dont tell that to members of Trumps hardcore base.

Theres only one good thing about Nikki Haley, said conservative activist Gavin Wax, who recently appeared onstage with the former president at a New York gala dinner. Its that everyone in MAGA hates her guts.

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Trump allies and MAGA luminaries move to kill off the Haley-for-VP buzz - POLITICO