the u.s. supreme court will decide, can donald trump be prosecuted for the things he did as president? the lead starts now. it's an extraordinary move, special counsel smith taking his case against donald trump straight to the highest court in the land. his question, does mr. trump get immunity or not for alleged cr president plus time is running out, as this humanitarian catastrophe worsens. critical aid into gaza delayed at one crossing, completely cut off at another. what is being done by president biden and others to alleviate the suffering and, where is alexei navalny , the opposition leader in russia seems to have just managed -- vanished from a prison in russia. we start today with our law and justice lead and a major development on whether donald trump or any president, really, has to face accountability for alleged federal crimes while in office. it's a basic test, are we in fact, a nation of laws. this afternoon special counsel smith filed a brief urging the supreme court to rule on whether the former president is immune from federal prosecution for his actions while he was in the white house. he's hoping to avoid the delays that are coming as trump's team fights this issue of immunity through lower courts. trump's lawyers are claiming that his actions were part of his official presidential duties at the time. it's an assessment with which the special counsel's team clearly disagrees. let's get straight to polar read. this question of immunity, it's already sitting with a lower court, so why is special counsel jack smith going straight to the supreme court? >> it's all about timing. this is an aggressive move to get this before the 2024 election, asking the supreme court to resolve two questions. one, does trump have immunity from criminal prosecution or is he protected by double jeopardy because he was impeached but not convicted for similar crimes. the special counsel doesn't think either one of these apply but they want this issue resolved, because we know trump's strategy is to delay, delay, delay. he is litigating these legitimate questions but that takes time. it can take months even well over a year to work these questions through the entire appellate process. and that's why the special counsel is saying it's in the public interest for you guys to just skip the middleman, let's go to the court of appeals, take up these questions and give us an answer so we can go to trial as scheduled. they are citing president from the next and watergate investigation when the supreme court was able to resolve a couple of issues there pretty quickly. clearly this is all about timing but interestingly, the special counsel even gave the supreme court and compromise, they said even if you don't want to take up these questions, could you tell the court of appeals to do this expeditiously and try to decide these questions before the end of the term. >> this is just for the federal election subversion case. there other cases, the georgia case, the federal classified documents case, the new york case, the new york civil case, would this have an impact on the other cases? >> it's unlikely. the specific question here is about federal prosecution. and we know his lawyers in georgia are thinking about launching a similar challenge. most people if they lost at the supreme court on this question would not relitigate this issue and other context. but this isn't necessarily about constitutional issues. primarily this is about delay. i expect no matter what happens here, i'd expect the trump team to continue to launch any similar challenges, wherever they can, really just to delay and push everything after the election. >> which is what lawyers do. i appreciate it. do you think this was a smart move by the special counsel to try to speed up the decision right now? >> i think it's a smart and necessary move, because as a practical matter this is the only real way that jack smith can hold onto his current trial date which is march 4th, 2024. jack smith has won this case in the district court, ordinarily trump would get to appeal to the court of appeals in the d.c. circuit and that could take even a couple of months. if he trump lost their he could ask the court of appeals to rehear the case meaning the entire court of appeals tack on another several weeks, maybe months and only then would the supreme court even began its review so there's no way to get all of that done between now and march 4th, which isn't that far away. he's looking to skip the middleman and take it right to the supreme court. >> donald trump's team has been trying to delay this case at every turn. how do you think he will react to this? >> listen, jack smith essentially called his bluff. the number 1 tactic that they've been using is delay. i think this keeps things on course and jack smith by the way intentionally did not mention the election. this is simply about, this is vital public interest moving forward. he very much kept it simple, there's a vital public interest here and he wants to keep it on the scheduled timeline. >> it's hard to imagine this not ending up at the us supreme court anyway, which is not to say they wouldn't just not take it up and defer to the appeals court but how do you think the u.s. supreme court will rule on this, is there a chance they will say no, you have to keep going through the normal process before it gets to us organically. >> i think that they will take this case directly. this is unusual but it does happen sometimes and if we look at recent examples, it's happened a couple of times in the last year or so. for example, the supreme court took a direct appeal on joe biden's student loan plan they also did the same thing on a dispute about immigration policy in texas and the same thing on the dispute about the texas law that allowed private citizens to sue over abortion. so the question they will be asking is a, how important is this case, and b, how time sensitive is it and if we compare this case to those, it's as important or more important and as time sensitive or more time sensitive. so i think they will take the case on the expedited basis. how they will rule, that is really an unknown. we don't have anything that is on point of course this is a 6- 3 conservative court but they have ruled against trump on major rulings in the past. that one, we will have to wait and see. >> chris christie said something about how in november 2024, donald trump will not even be allowed to vote because he will be a convicted felon. he got booed for it. but do you think if donald trump is a convicted felon, there's a lot of if's built into the question but do you think that will necessarily make it tougher for him to win the election? >> it will affect him and a general, i don't think it moves the needle with the base. there's been some polling that has suggested that some republican support would peel off but based on the political counter, the likelihood that he would be a convicted felon and not in the midst of an appeals process is extremely low. i think we've seen time and time again the republican party is going to stick by donald trump, win or lose but i think in a general election that would be radioactive and hand the presidency to joe biden. >> policy that she doesn't think that a ruling on this case would necessarily impact any of the other criminal cases that trump is facing, would you agree? >> i agree with paula 99% of the time but i slightly disagree on this. if trump is to win, obviously the federal elections cases out the window, i also think fani willis and her case is doomed. it's a state level but the principles of immunity would apply. again that's if trump wins. i agree with paula, this will have no impact on the hush money case because that conduct almost entirely happened before trump was president and it will not impact the federal mar-a- lago documents case because that was entirely after donald trump was president but if he wins here, i think two of the four cases will be out the window. >> mr. trump was supposed to testify in his new york trial today and he announced last night he would not. you think his time has decided to change, given that he's partially lost that case and it doesn't look like it's going to end up with a good result for him? >> i said last week on cnn i didn't think he would testify. i think it was him just saying that he would show up trying to appear tough and i think as often happens, his lawyers around and said this is not a good idea and he could end up hurting himself anyway and there was already the summary judgment of, there's a sense of where this is going but i think it was most likely that people around him said it will do you more harm than good >> how do you think the judge will rule in the new york case? >> he already ruled against trump on one of the seven causes of action before the trial started. i think he's going to fight against trump on many or all of the remaining counts. he showed no interest in buying into his defenses and the question is how much of the $250 million and most importantly will he revoke donald trump's business certificates. i think he will drop the hammer and then get to appeal. >> there's no criminal jail penalty with that case. thanks to both of you. despite all of trump's legal baggage, he dominates the 2024 republican presidential primary race. more proof of that came in today into new polls, in georgia a and michigigan, why h lead i in these twtwo states matters s so much. we are back with their 2024 lead, cue the music, nice. with exactly 5 weeks until the first in the nation iowa caucus, a new polls is donald trump strengthening his already huge lead amongst his competitors. and this comes as we get a new look at how trump could fair and other crucial states . >> donald trump, holding a commanding and widening lead in iowa, just five weeks before the state opens the 2024 republican presidential contest. 51% of republicans now backing the former president according to a new des moines register poll. that's up from 43% in october. the shrinking gop field has boosted trump, who now holds a 32 point lead. the race for second place is a showdown with ron desantis at 19% followed by nikki haley, at 16%. >> he's his own worst enemy by not being able to control his mouth and that has consequences for governments. and as being able to get things done. >> on a campaign swing, desantis and haley sharpening their attacks on trump's record. >> we know the economy was good under donald trump, right? but what we need to also remember was, we went $9 trillion in debt during that same time. and we are paying the price for that. >> nearly half of iowa caucus goers say their minds are made up but among trump supporters, 70% say they are firmly committed. >> the first guy that ever got indicted whose poll numbers went up. >> the former president is increasingly turning his focus to president biden. as new cnn polls show fresh signs of warning for the white house. in michigan and georgia, two of the five states widened turned from red to blue, the president is facing alarmingly low approval rating. our poll showing fewer than four in 10 approve of his performance. in michigan trump leads biden 50 to 40%. in a hypothetical head to head matchup with 10% saying they wouldn't support either candidate. that raises the question of a threat from a third-party contender asked specifically about rfk jr. and cornell west, trump falls to 39% and biden, 31%. and in georgia, trump has a 49 to 44% edge over biden, with 7% saying they would not back either. >> the challenges for biden are coming into sharp review. >> frankly he doesn't know what he's talking about. >> one of the biggest challenges for the president is the economy. the majority of voters in michigan and georgia say biden's policies have contributed to a worsening personal economic view for them but we will get to that in a moment. five weeks tonight, the iowa caucuses open. now trump has a commanding lead but he's not taking it for granted, he's going back to iowa wednesday and he's been campaigning in a different way, he's actually running a campaign this time. one interesting number from the iowa poll today was at first time caucus goers who the trump campaign is going after, 63% of them support trump. eight years ago, very loosely structured campaign, this year it's the best campaign out there. it's one of the reasons he has a commanding lead but the race for second place is still very aggressive. >> ted cruz won the iowa caucus in 2016 and donald trump accused him of all sorts of malfeasance that was not true. >> a precursor of things to come. to cnn town hall s and i will, i will moderate the first between florida governor desantis and caucus participants and then wednesday, abby philip will get a chance to do the same with vivek ramaswamy, both event started at 9:00 eastern, right here and only here, on cnn. today the government of israel is out with what it calls an urgent appeal to civilians as forces target forces in gaza. we will show you the chaotic situation on the ground, next. we're back with the world lead and the unlivable conditions inside gaza. whatever your opinion on the reasons for the current conditions of the palestinian people, whether you blame hamas entirely for provoking israel with that horrific october seven terror attack and then for embedding within the civilian population or whether you lay all of it at the feet of the israeli military and benjamin netanyahu or a combination of both, regardless, the fact remains a humanitarian catastrophe. it's worsening for nearly 2 million human beings and it needs to be fixed, immediately. in the last hour, israel dug in and said it would block eight from crossing into gaza despite pressure from the biden administration and a worsening bottleneck at the rafah crossing . despite hopes that the kerem shalom crossing which is just east of rafah, despite hopes that would open today, no eight entered in today. a top official said that crossing and another would be used to screen the truckloads of life-saving aid but it would have to pass through the busy rafah crossing. biden has been pushing benjamin netanyahu hard to open up the second passageway and in addition sources tell me president biden and secretary of state blinkin and the u.s. embassy israel and jake sullivan have been insisting on defying predictable pauses in the violence so palestinians, innocent palestinians can move out of harms way and aid groups can know where and when to deliver aid. all of the efforts to limit the civilian casualties but is benjamin netanyahu listening? that remains unclear, sources say. what is clear, causes dead are piling up. the health ministry says or than 18,000 people have been killed since the start of the war. israel disputes that number and the idf claims it has killed around 7000 hamas fighters. but regardless of whose numbers you believe, no one disputes that thousands of innocent palestinians have been killed. thousands more have been wounded and hundreds of thousands are struggling to find food, water and fuel. all while gaza is teetering on the brink of collapse. we will take you to the rafah crossing next but first the gripping accounts of the unimaginable suffering inside gaza. >> israel said after two months of fighting it still battling hamas into different stronghold in northern gaza. militants have held out there. but israel claims there on the verge of being dismantled. one area is the refugee camp, a resident said dozens of civilians were killed over the weekend, since the fragile week long pause in the fighting ended, israel has pounded the gaza strip, focused on the south, in the second largest city there where israel believes that senior hamas leaders may be hiding. the number of civilians killed and wounded grows. the entire house fell on my head and i was pulled from underneath the rubble this woman said. i would have been better off dead with my children rather than living in this grim reality. and an urgent appeal was issued by the idf for even more civilians to evacuate parts of eunice but it's unclear how many would have heard the orders and it isn't a guarantee of safety or shelter, medicine, food and water which are all in short supply. we were displaced from the north to the south for safety but there is no safety in the south, this woman said. it has led to deteriorating chaotic scenes, the united nations secretary-general warning the public order will completely break down soon. >> i think the state of israel does much beyond our obligations. >> you call the situation challenging, last month, you denied there was a humanitarian crisis in gaza. do you imagine that there really is a dire humanitarian crisis? >> like i said, the situation is very challenging. >> but it's not a crisis? >> as i see it it's a huge challenge. >> with united stations security council voted on a cease-fire resolution, the united states was the only country to vote against it. the un vote coming the same day that the biden administration used an emergency maneuver to bypass congress and approve the sale of 14,000 more tank rounds for israel. today in jerusalem, palestinian areas protested the war with a general strike, also seen in the west bank, lebanon and jordan. >> on a normal afternoon the streets would be teeming with people who live here, tourists, shopkeepers, but today there are very few people out and the shops are closed and it's eerily quiet. business and life coming to a standstill in solidarity with gaza. >> israel has created a mount of hatred that well-defined generations to come and therefore it's hurting its own people as much as it's hurting everybody else in the region. this is a war that cannot be won. >> so jake, israel has announced that this kerem shalom crossing will open tomorrow, that's between israel and gaza but as you pointed out, that does not mean that aid will be going into gaza from israel instead, the trucks will have to come into israel, from egypt, be checked by israel and go back into egypt and drive up to the rafah crossing with gaza and head on into the gaza strip. this adds another layer to this already complicated process. the good news is that this could double the number of trucks into gaza but as we pointed out, there are major problems once the trucks get into gaza that the aid gets to where it needs to be because of the fighting and the sheer number of people in the southern part of the gaza strip. >> clarissa, tell us what you saw when you were at the rafah crossing earlier today. how concerned are aid organizations about the bottleneck getting worse with israel's refusal to get a through kerem shalom crossing? >> they are desperately concerned. what they are basically saying is that the rafah crossing is not able to function as it should be. that it was never intended to handle this volume of trucks, hundreds of trucks and by the way, we saw them today. they go back miles from the border, all of them waiting with desperately needed a that still just not able to get in, in the quantities that they so desperately need. now, we saw a delegation of various un ambassadors, security council ambassadors, they were there, not in an official delegation but sort of on behalf of their own countries. they were invited by the uae ambassador to the un, to visit the border crossing. she said that she wanted to take the conversations away from the corridors of diplomacy in new york and give people a very real sense of what is happening on the ground. they visited a hospital, they listened to briefings by the head of the un agency that works in gaza who told them, there is about to be a massive humanitarian catastrophe. we talked about the breakdown of civil disorder, they talked about 100,000 gazans now massing near the border crossing, sleeping, in a state of just absolute desperation and despair. take a listen to what the uae ambassador had to say. >> we have the opportunity to hear a number of you, they essentially said the system is broken. more trucks will not be on that. what needs to happen is a radical shift in what is going on in gaza and that is the humanitarian cease-fire that they called for last week that was vetoed. i think we will continue calling for a humanitarian cease-fire. i think that's the main message. >> do you feel frustration at all from your u.s. colleagues that you haven't been able to pass the resolution? >> i think the numbers speak for themselves. 13 countries voted in favor, 103 countries wanted the resolution. that's the highest number of sponsorships. i think that's a strong message. people are dying because of the collapsing medical system, lack of food and water, we heard today that some people don't eat a meal for three days. that has become normal. hunger was not one of the issues we talked about. massive malnutrition today is. there is a moral imperative for us to take these messages back to new york and do everything we can across the board to make sure that the citizens don't suffer as much as they are suffering today. >> now jake, the u.s. ambassador to the un was obviously not part of that trip today. the u.s. saying they already have an extensive presence on the ground and are doing a lot of work on the ground and i should add that when i pushed the ambassador that question, about the frustration, she said pointblank and i think this is important, quote, you asked diplomacy is the most effective tool that we have for resolving this conflict. so clearly, the uae and many other member states, really view the usa as an integral part of this process going on. she also said they play a key role in pressuring the israelis to open the kerem shalom crossing set, it did not open today but expectations are high that it may open soon but still a severe crisis ongoing. >> up also heard criticism of the egyptians for not letting more refugees out so they could be cared for and the israelis say look, hamas is the government and military of gaza and they declared war on us, what do you expect us to do, we are not going to open the border crossings, i'm sure you've heard that too. >> absolutely. you come to realize, jake, when you're covering the story and talking to the different parties involved, there's a lot of finger-pointing. the israelis will blame hamas and the egyptians will blame the israelis and that what has made it so difficult for the international community to really come together in a nd co and meet the magnitude of the moment, and ensure the free and unfettered passage of aid to those who need it most before the situation really crosses the rubicon, jake. >> thank you so much for your reporting as always. coming up next, elon musk with a dramatic reversal letting alex jones, back on his platform, x, formerly known as twitter. hear what he's saying now versus what he said just about a yearar ago. elon musk has reinstated the account of right wing extremist alex jones on what expert he was banned back in 2018 under previous ownership, after spreading false and malicious conspiracy theories including the horrific ones about the sandy hook massacre, the nonsense about the 20 children and six adults that were killed. he said it was a hoax. he said the victims were crisis actors. >> don't ever think the, that have hijacked this country wouldn't stage something like this. they kill kids all day everyday. sandy hook, it's got inside job written all over it. sandy hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured. >> evil, malicious, lies, every one of them. alex jones was later sued by the families and was ordered to pay more than a million dollars in damages to the victims families after the false claims lead some of alex jones supporters to torment and even threaten the families in person to the point where some of these poor families had to move her they couldn't even visit the graves of their lost children. so in elon musk took over on twitter last year, some people begin to push and to allow alex jones back on the social media site despite his cruelty. at the time, musk seemed to respond in a very human way, he wrote, quote, my firstborn child died in my arms. i felt his last heartbeat. i have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame. but, i guess that's out the window because over the weekend, musk fielded an unscientific survey twitter to his followers and asked if he should reinstate actions and not surprise me, 70% of elon musk's followers, nearly 2 million voters said yes, he later said, i vehemently disagree with what he said about sandy hook but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not. that's what it comes down to in the end and if the people vote him back on, this will be bad for x financially but principles matter more than money, unquote. we should note it was a year ago that mr. free speech suspended journalists for saying things they didn't like including donnie jones. it's actually being promoted across the platform now? >> that's right, alex jones, it looks like he has grown his audience by about 100,000 followers since being put back on that platform. our colleague, reporting that people have opened up x, the twitter apps today, even if they haven't followed jones, a lot of people have been saying that in the algorithmic feed that promotes accounts, suggesting to people they should follow jones's account, that is of course, five years after he was initially kicked off the platform and really, i think this is just so illustrative of what we are seeing happe n with x but also with elon musk, he kind of journeys publicly down this rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, jake. >> he didn't just bring the account back, he's playing a role in elevating it. last night he hosted this x lifestream interview with him and a whole bunch of other questionable folks were joining him, andrew tate, his misogynistic internet personality that was indicted on human trafficking and rape charges and to be frank, tate wasn't even the worst dude in the conversation, why is musk even engaging with these people? >> look i think you show there that tweet, as you pointed out, the very human tweet from musk where he said, what alex jones said that was so false and disgusting about sandy hook, that he would never get back on the platform because of that. you have now seen that over the past year musk, you know, kind of has been going further and further to the friends, even after a few weeks ago, agreeing with the anti-semitic post which he later tried to clarify with a trip to israel and things like that but i've spent a lot of the past few years speaking to people who have gone down rabbit holes of radicalization and conspiracy theories and speaking to families of loved ones, and it's quite reminiscent of that when you see that, of course but in this case, it is one of the most powerful and one of the wealthiest men in the world and he's promoting these people and i will say the audio stream on last check, it had 11 million people, 11 million listeners. numbers online can be deceiving but needless to say, millions of people now have access to this junk. >> we should also note that jones offenses are more than just the sandy hook campaign which was vile enough in and of itself but he had a lot of followers for january 6th and one wonders, is elon musk trying to chase normal people off x? is he trying to chase advertisers away even more than he already has? >> the conventional wisdom would say, this is going to push advertisers away and will be very interesting to see what major brands like the nfl will do but let's not forget, there is a lot of money in bowl as well, we saw through the alex jones trial, he made a lot of money and if you really tap into this, along with tucker carlson and general flynn and others, people who are taking part in this new x community, that can potentially be quite lucrative, and potentially, that's the direction that musk wants to go. >> a lot of money and a lot of votes. thank you so much. one of russia's most high political -- high profile political prisoners, aleksei navalny. . in our world lead, jailed russian opposition leader alexi navalny is reportedly missing from prison. his legal team says he was supposed to show up for a court hearing today near moscow. navalny is considered to be one of the most serious political threats to vladimir putin. fred pleitgen is in germany for us. his lawyers san jose say he's been gone for six days and they don't know where he is? >> reporter: absolutely. they were supposed to visit him in prison on friday. back then the prison authorities said, look, you simply can't see him. today, as you mentioned, he was supposed to have this hearing that was supposed to take place via a video link, and he simply didn't show up for that. the lawyers were then told and this says a lot about the russian prison service. the lawyers were told there was apparently a power failure. then the lawyers kept asking, and the prison authorities then admitted he was no longer even on the list of prisoners who were inside that jail. so what happened then is that alexey navalny's associates and his lawyers as well made a lot of phone calls to a lot of jails in the vicinity of that area, and none of them knew anything about alexey navalny being there. as of this point, she and remains missing. this leads to a lot of concerns among his family, among his associates as well. one of the things that we do know is over the past couple weeks, he has had some serious health issues. in fact, the anti-corruption foundation of which he is still the head, said just a week ago he actually fainted inside his jail cell and had to be given an iv because he's been so weak recently, jake. >> as the mystery around his whereabouts intensifies, one has to wonder whether this is directly related to the upcoming presidential election in russia in march. >> reporter: it is interesting. vladimir putin announced he is going to stand in that election, set to take place on march 17th. it's around this time that alexey navalny has disappeared. they've bought billboard ads which on the face of them say happy new year to russia. if you click on a qr code it tries to dissuade people from voting for vladimir putin. that's definitely something that angered the russian authorities. that's something the anti-corruption foundation is looking into. one of the things we need to point out is that alexey navalny was supposed to be transferred to a different jail than an even harsher regime that he's insofar. it's not uncommon for prisoners to completely be out of communications, not be allowed to communicate at all. in fact, that is something that happened to navalny in 2022 when he was put in the jail he's been insofar. nevertheless, the concern, of course, is massive right now among those people supporting him because of his health issues and because they have absolutely no idea about his whereabouts. >> fred pleitgen in berlin, thank you very much. a major request from special counsel jack smichlth he wants the u.s. supreme court to decide whether or not donald trump is immune from crimes he allegedly committed while president. why make this ask now? what might this mean for the trial set to start in march? that's ahead. 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. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. tracking the flow of money to hamas. why his critics say benjamin netanyahu helped support the terror group by turning a blind eye to that funding so as to hurt the palestinian authority in the west bank. the texas woman pregnant with a fetus with a fatal condition after fighting to get an abortion in texas, an attorney for kay cox says she's left the state to get the procedure. could that put her in jeopardy for criminal prosecution by the state of texas. leading this hour, the u.s. supreme court has been asked to intervene in the case against donald trump. special counsel jack smith is going around the appeals process and asking the high court directly, is donald trump immune from his alleged crimes during his time as president? let's get right to cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez. this trial was set to start in march. how does this u.s. supreme court request impact that? >> reporter: jake, that's exactly what the special counsel is trying to do. they're trying to make sure this trial remains on track to get started in march because they know that eventually this case was going to come to the supreme court. they know that donald trump was going to -- and his lawyers were going to use the next couple months to make filings to the courts to try to delay this trial. that's been the game all along. so what they're asking for is for the court to take on head on the question