Biden may preemptively pardon Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, after Trump’s threats of revenge – US politics live

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Trump asks US supreme court to stop Friday sentencing in hush money case

Attorneys for Donald Trump this morning appealed to the US supreme court to pause proceedings in the president-elect’s prosecution on business fraud charges in New York, ahead of his sentencing scheduled for Friday, Reuters reports.

Two previous appeals to stop the sentencing have failed, and now the president-elect’s attorneys are petitioning the nation’s highest court, where conservative justices, three of whom Trump appointed, hold a six-seat supermajority. Trump’s attorneys want the case put on pause while a separate appeal they have filed, which cites the court’s decision last year in a separate Trump-related case that grants presidents immunity for official acts, plays out.

Juan Merchan, the New York judge presiding over the case, has signaled that he will not sentence Trump to jail after being convicted of 34 felony charges related to concealing a payment to an adult film actor made ahead of his 2016 election victory. Here’s more:

Biden says he may preemptively pardon Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, after Trump's threats of revenge

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden is in his final days in office, and still has a few pieces of unfinished business to deal with before he hands power to Donald Trump on 20 January. One of them is deciding whether to issue preemptive pardons to political enemies of the incoming president, such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney or Anthony Fauci, who spearheaded the fight against Covid-19 in Trump’s first term. In an interview with USA Today published today – a rare, final sit-down interview by a president who spent much of his term avoiding the press – Biden confirmed he may still opt to protect Trump’s enemies from prosecution, and signaled he would decide based on who the president-elect appoints to top roles in his administration.

Meanwhile, Trump is scrambling to halt the sentencing in his criminal business fraud case that is scheduled to take place in a Manhattan court on Friday. Reuters reports that his attorneys have asked the US supreme court to intervene to pause the proceedings, though the New York judge presiding over the case has signaled he is unlikely to sentence the president-elect to jail time. We will let you if the nation’s highest court responds.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Trump will this evening trek to Capitol Hill for a strategy meeting with the Republican senators tasked with enacting his administration’s priorities, ranging from mass deportations to extending tax cuts enacted during his first term.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rightwing Georgia congresswoman, says she will introduce legislation to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, as Trump proposed at a rambling press conference yesterday.

• Los Angeles continues to be battered by three separate wildfires fueled by high winds. Follow our live blog as more than 1,400 firefighters attempts to contain the flames.