Michigan state legislature closes offices due to 'credible threats of violence'
Law enforcement recommended the Michigan legislature close its offices.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 39 days.
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Harris vows to 'right the wrongs' of the Trump admin at immigration conference
During first speech post-election on immigration, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ told immigration activists that she's focused on working to “right the wrongs of these past four years."
Harris, during pre-taped remarks at the 13th Annual National Immigrant Integration Conference, ticked off a few immigration-related actions the Biden administration hopes to tackle in the first 100 days in office.
“In our first 100 days, we will send an immigration bill to Congress, reinstate DACA, repeal harmful and discriminatory policies like the Muslim ban, and during our administration, we will repeal indiscriminate enforcement policies that tear families apart and make us less safe," Harris said.
The daughter of two immigrants, Harris later noted the sacrifice that immigrants have made during the pandemic as essential workers, vowing to create a “humane immigration system.”
-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson
Trump called Pennsylvania Republican House Speaker last week
Trump reached out to Pennsylvania State Speaker of the House Brian Cutler last week asking about the legislature possibly overturning the election as part of his ongoing and apparent pressure campaign to have GOP-controlled legislatures flip results in his favor in battleground states he lost.
Mike Straub, a spokesman for Cutler, confirmed to ABC News reporting in The New York Times that Trump asked what options were available to the legislature on the phone call.
“Cutler made it very clear what power the legislature has and does not have," Straub told ABC News, adding he is "not aware of the President explicitly asking to turnover [sic] the election results."
Straub separately told ABC News that he was not present for the conversations between Cutler and the president, but he was briefed.
"The president wanted to know what options were available to the legislature to address those concerns... Speaker Cutler was very clear in explaining what power the legislature has and does not have within our state Constitution," Straub said. "One remedy the Trump campaign is seeking in a court case involves the legislature seating electors -- Speaker Cutler explained the legislature does not have that authority."
Cutler separately signed onto a resolution last week imploring Pennsylvania Republicans in Congress to officially contest the election results in January. While this has happened in the past, including over the election of George W. Bush, it is highly unlikely to overturn the election results.
The Supreme Court may decide Tuesday to take up a challenge by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly over the constitutionality of mail-in voting, but legal experts have told ABC News that is a long shot. With Tuesday being the constitutionally mandated "safe-harbor" deadline for electors, all legal challenges are meant to be resolved by the end of the day, thus ensuring the correct electors will cast their votes in statehouses on Dec. 14.
-ABC News' Alex Hosenball
Former Trump admin official sues Trump campaign lawyer for defamation
Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs has sued Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova and Newsmax over comments the Trump campaign lawyer made on the TV network calling for Krebs to be "taken out at dawn and shot."
Krebs’ lawyers say that the Trump campaign and “diGenova, spread, stoked, and instigated unfounded allegations of system-wide voter fraud, abuse, and interference—without proffering any evidence deemed credible by any state or federal court—in a naked and politically motivated effort to undermine public confidence in the election,” according to a complaint filed in Montgomery County, Maryland, court.
Trump fired Krebs last month after he repeatedly rebuked unfounded claims made by Trump and his campaign about widespread voter fraud, which the complaint also hits on.
The lawsuit says Krebs has received death threats through email and on Twitter by, in some cases, “angry Newsmax viewers," with people calling Krebs a traitor who should be hung. These threats were so serious, according to the lawsuit, that Krebs’ 10-year-old child asked, “Daddy’s going to get executed?”
“Seeing the pain and fear in those closest to him has only elevated his own pain and fear,” the lawsuit says. Because of this, Krebs has had to leave his house, retain private security and reported threats to law enforcement.
Krebs is seeking Newsmax to remove the clip as well as monetary damages, with the suit saying that diGenova and the network have a “symbiotic relationship.”
-ABC News' Luke Barr
Jenna Ellis says she's positive for COVID-19: Sources
Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis has informed associates she’s tested positive for coronavirus only days after attending a Christmas party at the White House, igniting panic in the West Wing, multiple sources tell ABC News.
Ellis attended a senior staff Christmas party at the White House on Friday, where she was photographed not wearing a mask.
The news comes just days after it was revealed that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. Ellis has spent the last month traveling the country with Giuliani working to overturn the 2020 election results in states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona on behalf of the president. Both have attended hearings without wearing a mask.
-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Will Steakin
Trump brings GOP along in dangerous final acts: Analysis
From the technical standpoint of a transition of power, the public opinion of congressional Republicans about whether Biden will take office Jan. 20 matters almost not at all.
From the broader standpoint of democracy and faith in elections, it could not hardly matter more at this moment.
The process that so many Republicans have been saying they want to play out is rather thoroughly exhausted already. The next seven days bring significant deadlines, with Tuesday's congressional "safe harbor" deadline for state election results and next Monday's Electoral College voting the most significant.
His tweets and the 101 minutes Trump spent airing grievances and falsehoods in Georgia Saturday night made clear he will pursue his dangerous fictions right through the end of his presidency. The good of the Republican Party -- and, of course, the good of the country -- are, at best, secondary considerations for the president at this point.
Some Republicans are trying to reframe questions about Biden's legitimacy as president-elect as though they are merely asking questions. Their suggestion is that democracy is threatened if people believe election irregularities have been ignored.
But far from being brushed aside, Trump's claims have been rejected in courthouses and state houses -- including by Republicans who have found themselves targeted by the president.
Ignoring that fact only sows more doubt in election integrity and legitimacy. And continuing to give Trump space to make wildly inaccurate and irresponsible claims will only solidify his hold on a party whose best interests have already begun to diverge from the president's.
-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein