welcome back to "face the nation." we return now to our conversation with chief legal correspondent jan crawford and chief washington correspondent major garrett. major, i want to pick up with

you. jan has laid out for us there is the expectation the supreme court could say some, but not total immunity. what does this mean for the timeline for special counsel jack smith. >> as a practical matter the trump legal effort has already succeeded. it has delayed a resolution of this matter for a very long time. oral arguments were april 25th. many legal scholars have said what is the court waiting for? this is not that hard a question. but by waiting, even there is room available to the special counsel jack smith to prosecute, his choice is to launch that trial in september or october, at the absolute earliest. in the very teeth of a presidential campaign in which former president trump says because i am potent, because i am politically leading i am being prosecuted. is that the political and legal terrain jack smith wants to wade into? we'll find out. it's the most consequential prosecutorial decision in the history of the country. >> and on two case, one directly related to 2020 attempts to

steal the election, the other on classified documents, that playing out in florida. >> precisely. >> what is the timeline on that case? >> much, much later. because judge aileen cannon has briefed and heard arguments on so many underlying issues in that case, it does not appear ripe for prosecution under the most favorable calendar before the election. the january 6th case does. >> jan, how would the immunity ruling that you are expecting, affect the classified documents case in florida? >> i don't think it would. that again that case is about what he did after he left office, and i agree with major i see no way that classified documents case goes forward. i think that is a very inexperienced judge and she's taken on a lot of issues. i see no way that one goes forward because again, that's -- that's about behavior after -- he's no longer a sitting president. but i do want to point out, you know, remember the supreme court did agree to jack smith's

request to expedite this case. he asked the court if they were going to decide it to take it up this term and have a decision by the end of the session and that's what he's going to get. there are a lot of people who wish on the conservative side that court had said no, we're going to do it regular course of business, come back and have arguments in december, give you a decision in january or february and there is no trial. i understand there's frustration among democrats the court seems to be dragging their feet on tis, but that's not true. i mean the court has expedited this. they added this to their calendar and they are going to give jack smith what he wanted in his filings, a decision by the end of the term that allows him to go forward with the trial. >> frustrations with the democratic party that attorney general -- >> the d.c. court of appeals issued a r57 paige opinion on this, unequivocal. the supreme court could have taken that. >> and they didn't like that decision because it essentially

said there is no immunity. there's none. the court believed and i think from this conversation you can see, there is some immunity. >> yeah. >> for official acts. the court believed let's decide it now instead of having this go through the trial court process and challenging this. >> jan, friday, the attorney general said he was disappointed that court ruled 6-3 to limit a law that has been used to charge hundreds of capitol riot defendants as well as president trump. how will this affect the potential case against mr. trump? >> that case again, that came up one of the january 6th defendants along with a couple others who were charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, challenged the use of that charge in their cases and the supreme court said on friday that prosecutors may have overreached. they looked at the law that was at issue as part of the sarbanes-oxley act after the enron accounting scandal and said that justices said on friday it has to be tied to some

kind of destruction or hampering of evidence. so that was a big win for the january 6th defendant in this case, joe fisher, and a couple others. it doesn't mean it's a big win for donald trump. he is going to file a motion to dismiss assuming this immunity case goes like we believe it will, and jack smith, i'm sure, already has legal papers to say, let me show you how this obstruction charge is still going to apply to donald trump. that carries a 20-year prison sentence. it is a felony, the most serious charge and i believe that based on, again, another opinion in the d.c. circuit, that lays out a groundwork for how trump can be charged they will be able to show that he was trying to interfere with evidence. the evidence of those certificates where they were counting state electors. he was trying to disrupt that evidence and the counting of those votes. >> very quickly, just under 1500 have been charged with the

january 6 riot. >> for president biden to be removed from the top of the ticket he would have to agree rj he has to agree. dnc rules are clear. the threshold to be the nominee are 19 68 delegates. president biden has 3894. there is no mechanism to dislodge him from becoming the renominated candidate for the democratic party. period, end of story. there are lots of people talking about it, but unless he removes himself or somehow incapacitated this is a closed matter. >> it's a family matter at the moment. >> a very important family matter not just the family but the broader democratic party family. >> thank you for your reporting and analysis. we'll be right back.

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regarding the arrests in los angeles, philadelphia and new york city and the 8 tajikistan nationals suspected links to isis-k. do you know where we are in regard to understanding whether they were a cell working together, whether there were direct links? >> yeah. law enforcement as you might expect is making good progress determining who these people were talking to, what the plans were. other people involved in the network. whether an attack was imminent. whether there were specific plans for an attack. this isn't new, right? in other words, as you know shortly after these individuals entered the united states not stopped because there was no derogatory information on them at the time, very quickly some derogatory information was developed, and the decision was taken to watch these guys. now the reason you watch these guys instead of instantly arresting them is that their behavior and communications can really paint a specific picture of a plot of a conspiracy if

there is one. obviously, they took the decision at one point that the risk-reward there was such they made these arrests, but, of course, they continued to work to understand whether there were plans and if so who else might have been involved. >> it sounds like intelligence is still being gleaned from these eight individuals. how can we say there is no active threat? >> well, margaret, we can never say there is no active threat. you know, there is always a baseline threat of a terrorist act in the united states. there is absolutely nothing we can do to change that fact, so uk never say there is zero risk. you can look at the period of time since 9/11, the tragic attack on 9/11 and say how many americans have died in a terrorist attack engineered by foreigners. the answer that question is vanishingly small. our people are very good, but you can never have zero risk of a terrorist attack. >> would you support a public hearing with the intelligence chiefs to lay out the facts as

we know them? i know director wray said we are at the highest possible level of threat right now. >> yeah. and margaret, look, i think it's really important for people to keep this in context. that may true and it's probably true because the world is a more complicated place than it was ten years ago, in particular, with the war in israel and gaza. we see every radical islamic group from the houthis to the iranian-backed proxies interested in doing things they might not have wanted to do ten years ago. director wray may be right and, in fact, i think our intelligence agencies and law enforcement are on alert. the tajikistan story is a success story. they were arrested and did not conduct a terrorist attack. >> mike turner was on this program a few weeks ago and sade, quote, we have terrorists actively working insideth united states that are a threat to americans. is that an accurate

characterization, and if so, why now? >> well, the tajik case, as far as i know, the only case that we have been briefed on on the intelligence committee of our intelligence community, our law enforcement community, following people that we think could be involved in a plot. i'm certainly not aware of other situations like that. now, it is almost certainly true in a country of 350 million people, that there are some people out there who are thinking about undertaking acts of violence. we see a lot of violence in this country, most of it is domestic, most of it is not related to transnational terrorism. but again, you asked earlier about a public hearing around the facts here. >> yeah. >> i didn't answer it directly so i will answer it directly right now. we're probably not at that stage because of what we started talking about which is the absolute necessity of law enforcement really understanding the full contours of that tajik group and doing the work they need to do which is best done in secret.

>> in terms of what's happening and the connections to the southern border, president biden said at the debate on thursday quote, i'm not saying no terrorist ever got through. so he seems to be acknowledging this unknown element here. do you think the intelligence community has the resources they need right now to deal with the threat and the vulnerability at the border? >> of course a border in which people are entering and we don't know who they are is a risk. no question about it. i wish that we had seized the opportunity with a bipartisan bill negotiated by jim langford and chris murphy, conservative republican and progressive democrat to do something about that. donald trump said no. he said don't do it. i want to run on this issue. i would have loved to have seen that get done. >> sure. >> again, you know, people need to put this into context. how many americans have died in a terrorist attack by somebody who snuck across the southern border. the answer to that question is zero. so resource allocation should the fbi, should the cia be laser

focused on the southern border, i don't know. clearly it is a risk and a vulnerability. a lot of these plots we pick up because of our collection ability abroad. >> you think the resources are adequate to intelligence collection abroad. >> i think if you had the head of the fbi or any of the people involved in this effort they would say we could use more resources, right. one of the challenges we have that we haven't talked about, is remember for a decade now, move ep a decade, we've been talking about the pivot to china. right. china invading taiwan is an outcome that is catastrophic in ten dimensions. serious about pivoting to asia, supporting the fight against russia, some things like counterterrorism are not going to get the full amount of resources that you would like. >> before i let you go, how do you think america's foreign adversary's viewed president

biden's performance on thursday night. >> i suspect pretty much everybody watched the debate and thought the president did not perform the way we would have liked to have seen him perform. however, i've spent time around three presidents and i will tell you that president's job is enormously hard and involves all kinds of things none of which are standing and doing a debate for 90 minutes on tv. the president's job involves passing legislation. i hope people would compare this president's record in that regard with the last president's record. >> being quick on your feet is important on the job. >> yeah. again i think he's acknowledged and the vice president acknowledged that was not the performance we were looking for, but i'm not so cynical as to believe that american people are going to choose a president based on a 90s minute debate, rather than a four-year record of startling legislative achievements and setting a tone that world says wow, america is back to the decent leader that we used to believe that it was prior to the trump administration. >> congress man hines, thank you

for your time this morning. we'll be back in a moment. man h for your time this morning. we'll be back in a moment. liz neeley: you know, you've probably heard it said that some people have to hit rock bottom before they really come to the lord and give him their life. and that's what happened. i probably had a lot of anxiety at that point about my future, but as i began to study the word and a lot of dr. stanley's teachings and sermons, i began to realize that, through the love of jesus, god saved me for a purpose.

we turn to the executive director of the u.n. agency that helps disadvantaged children in

the world's toughest places. unicef's ruscatherine russell js us from new york. you're back from sudan, the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet right now. what did you learn? >> yeah. i learned that it is a catastrophic situation for children there, and there are compounding crises. first, it's the largest displacement cry ses for children around the world. so many millions of children have moved from their homes to neighboring countries like south sudan, egypt, or chad. many millions are moved inside sudan to other places in the country trying to find some refuge. it's also a huge challenge in terms of malnutrition. we have 4 million children severely malnourished, more than half a million of those are acutely malnourished. which means they are on the verge of starvation. shockingly, almost every child in sudan has been out of school for the last year which is

incredibly destabilizing for them, for their future and for the country as well. >> yeah. 17 million children who are not in school. >> shocking. >> apart from the humanitarian concern, the u.s. intelligence community has highlighted sudan could become a terrorist safe haven due to the ongoing civil war. what are the conditions like for those next generations? >> the conditions are absolutely terrible. i have to say, i was at a center that unicef supports where we were providing all sorts of services for children, education, which, you know, as we discussed a horrific problem of them not being in school, trying to provide health care, providing psycho social support for children so traumatized. it's almost hard to imagine. it's also just a desperate place in so many ways. they've been so traumatized by so much violence and they've seen things no child should ever see. that's really something that

long term is hard to imagine how they get over it. having said that we are there and we are working hard getting to these chirp, but this ongoing conflict makes it almost impossible to provide a decent future for these kids. >> a little closer to home in haiti, i know this past week the first u.n. backed foreign law enforcement forces from eight countries arrived. this is part of a u.s. supported effort. how quickly do you think that will make a difference for the ch children there? >> i would say hopefully it will be quick because the children, honestly, i feel like a broken record when i tell you how bad it is in so many places but haiti is really challenging because there's so much vie helps. i was shocked by what i saw when i was there several months ago. so many children who have seen violence and experienced violence, high, high rates of sexual violence. it's been important to try to stabilize that situation. i think this is the first step.

it's going to take a lot of work i think to get it done, but at least we'll start to see some semblance, hopefully, of some security which will make it easier for us to operate but also give these children some prospect for a decent future that isn't defined by violence and hunger which is unfortunately what we're seeing now. >> and the u.s. remains the largest donor to many of these humanitarian causes i know. there was one rare piece of good news this past week in the middle east. i read 21 children with cancer were permitted to be medically evacuated from gaza, the first evacuation since may. why is it so hard to get sick children out? >> i'll say this. everything in gaza is hard it's just the most challenging environment for to us to work in i have to say. i think that, you know, the main problem is a lack of security and that makes it difficult for

the children who live there. they have been displaced so many times. so many children have multiple times moved trying to seek refuge trying to get away from the bombardments. it's challenging. we know we continue to see that we're on the verbal of famine there. children basically it means they don't know where their next meal is coming from. they have not been in school. it's an incredibly challenging place for children. and i think, you know, it is great to find some shred of good news and, you know, when you humanitarian situations the humanitarian crisis is so devastating you forget there are ru deep problems that children face. they're not getting their vaccines. they're not getting treatment for things like cancer or other routine diseases and challenges that children all over the world face. getting some of these kids out of there has been a bright spot, but i think overall, we continue to see real challenges in our ability to operate there. we need to get that situation sorted out so that children have some prospect and i think this applies to all three of the

situations you've talked about. children are the future. we talk about that all the time what does that mean? if we don't give them a future and make sure they have some prospect of hope and i think it's incumbent upon all of the adults in the world to come together and do better by these children? ? i couldn't agree more with you on that. director russell, thank you very much. we'll be right back. ur albuteroa rescue inhaler, but it's a bit of a dinosaur, because it only treats your symptoms, not inflammation. treating both symptoms and inflammation with rescue is supported by asthma experts. finally, there's a modern way to treat symptoms and asthma attacks. airsupra is the first ever dual-action rescue inhaler that treats your asthma symptoms and helps prevent attacks. airsupra is the only rescue fda-approved to do both. airsupra is an as-needed rescue inhaler and should not be used as a maintenance treatment for asthma. get medical help right away if your breathing

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nearly half of the countries in the world will hold elections in 2024, and today french citizens cast ballots in a snap parliamentary election. french president macron made the surprising decision to hold it after his centrist party was trounced by the far right in the recently european elections. it signals once again the uncertainty about the political changes ahead. president macron called his shock decision a test of truth.

the rising floodwaters of the far right, as macron put it, cannoting ignored. with a call to stop the migration, this man, 28-year-old jordan bardella may become france's next prime minister. with a platform promising to crack down on crime and restrict citizenship and rights for foreign residents. his national rally party is poised to potentially win a parliamentary majority. the party led by marie le pen and founded by her holocaust denying father has renounced its anti-semitic past, but for years, has rallied on anti-muslim rhetoric and described migrants as threatening, particularly to women. macron, who will remain as president for another three years, warned that far right risks sparking a civil war. and in germany, police broke up

protests this weekend outside the afd, or alternative for germany convention. that far right party pulled off its best performance ever in european parliamentary elections, worrying chancellor olaf schultz and moving one of afd's leaders borne hawk from the fringe to the floor. hawk says he deplores the nazis but led chants of their slogans which landed him back in court since germanin' law bans the use of phrases. they advocate for tough deportation policies, suspicious of climate change and the government response to covid. waves of migrants mainly from syria, afghanistan and africa have been pleaing to germany since europe's 2015 refugee crisis. earlier this month this viral

individual video of germans chanting foreigners out caused outrage. despite emerging trend lines in europe it appears the center did hold in those parliamentary elections at least for now. center right ursula von der land is expected to remain european commission president. hungary takes over the rotating presidency of the european council and prime minister viktor orban has promised to, quote, make europe great again. the slogan and nod to his friend donald trump. with the far right still ascending in parts of europe it has left some to wonder if america is any less immune. and leaves open the question of what happens next when democracies elect leaders who flirt with anti-democratic tendencies. that's it for us today. thank you all for watching. until next week, for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan.

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