Trump lawyers to argue for dismissal of Georgia election subversion case – live

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today in Georgia, Donald Trump’s legal team will argue that the case brought against him by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis for allegedly trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election result should be dismissed on first amendment grounds, CNN reports. The hearing in Atlanta will be the first held since judge Scott McAfee ruled Willis could continue handling the case, but only if special prosecutor Nathan Wade quit, which he did. For Trump, the odds are not looking particularly good: two of his 18 co-defendants have made similar claims that they were merely exercising their free speech rights when claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, but McAfee rejected their arguments.

Today’s hearing nonetheless represents a return to sorting out the actual merits of Willis’s case, which was delayed for weeks after defense attorneys alleged she had created a conflict of interest by hiring Wade, a romantic partner. The Georgia case is one of four criminal indictments against Trump, but still has no trial date – a crucial element to sort out, considering that a conviction could upend the 2024 presidential race.

Here’s what else we are watching today:

• Joe Biden this evening will head to a New York City campaign fundraiser where he is reportedly expecting to rake in a mammoth $25m, thanks to a little help from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both of whom will be there.

• Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was briefly a presidential candidate, said he would not pursue a third-party presidential bid, leaving No Labels’s much-worried-over ticket empty once again.

• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will see what reporters want to know, sometime after 11.40am ET.