US supreme court to issue decisions with high-profile Trump and abortion cases still to come – live

One of the most hotly anticipated cases that the supreme court could rule on today is Donald Trump’s challenge to the federal charges against him for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. His lawyers say that Trump is immune from prosecution because he carried out the alleged acts as president, and, during oral arguments in April, some of the justices on the conservative-dominated court seemed to agree, at least in part.

The federal election interference case is one of two brought against Trump by special prosecutor Jack Smith. The other concerns the former president’s possession of classified documents and conspiring to keep them from investigators.

That case is moving slowly through pre-trial motions, and the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has uncovered new details of the Trump’s legal strategy. Here’s what he found:

Donald Trump is expected next week to ask the federal judge presiding in the criminal case over his retention of classified documents to revoke prosecutors’ access to memos made by his ex-lawyer that became key evidence of his efforts to obstruct the investigation, according to sources familiar with the plans.

The request will be made before US district judge Aileen Cannon at a sealed hearing Tuesday. The former president last month challenged prosecutors’ access to transcripts of voice memos made by ex-lawyer Evan Corcoran, but what Trump will seek behind closed doors has not been reported.

Trump’s lawyers are expected to argue that none of the memos should have been given to prosecutors on the crime-fraud exception, which allows prosecutors to see privileged communications between a defendant and a lawyer, if their legal advice was used in furtherance of a crime.

The sweeping request could have far-reaching consequences since the memos – with, for example, Trump asking whether they could ignore the subpoena, or a later suggestion to “pluck” out some classified documents instead of returning them to the FBI – are the strongest evidence of Trump’s obstructive intent.

Even if the judge excludes only some of the passages, it could dramatically undercut the strength of the obstruction case.