READ: Judge upholds Atlanta criminal indictment against Donald Trump – Atlanta News First
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The judge overseeing one of American history’s most watched criminal trials rejected a bid on Thursday from former President Donald Trump to dismiss charges he attempted to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee upheld the indictment against Trump while rejecting the argument Trump’s comments alleging election interference were protected under the First Amendment.
“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” McAfee wrote. “After interpreting the indictment’s language liberally in favor of the State as required at this pretrial stage, the Court finds that the Defendants’ expressions and speech are alleged to have been made in furtherance of criminal activity and constitute false statements knowingly and willfully made in matters within a government agency’s jurisdiction which threaten to deceive and harm the government.”
2024.04.04 Order on First Amendment by Lindsey Basye on Scribd
“President Trump and other defendants respectfully disagree with Judge McAfee’s order and will continue to evaluate their options regarding the First Amendment challenges,” Steve Sadow, one of Trump’s Georgia attorneys, said. “It is significant that the court’s ruling was without prejudice, as it made clear that defendants were not foreclosed from again raising their ‘as-applied challenges at the appropriate time after the establishment of a factual record.’ ”
From CNN:
McAfee’s ruling is the latest step inching the state racketeering case against Trump forward. But while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested she would be ready to go to trial as soon as August, the judge has still not set a trial date for Trump or his remaining 14 co-defendants in the Peach State.
McAfee’s refusal to scrap the indictment comes as the free speech defense has repeatedly fallen short in pretrial wrangling in election meddling cases.
McAfee previously rejected similar First Amendment challenges from other defendants in the Georgia case. In the federal election interference case, Judge Tanya Chutkan also heard – and rejected – the argument that Trump’s actions should be considered protected political speech.
At a hearing on the First Amendment issue last month, Sadow argued Trump’s attempts to upend the Georgia election results were “core political speech.”
“What do we have here?” Sadow asked. “We have election speech, which is ‘protected’ from government restriction.”
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