Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has denied Donald Trump’s attempt to have District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution in Georgia against the ex-president and other co-defendants dismissed on First Amendment grounds.
“Trump and his co-defendants, including his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, had argued the DA’s prosecution ‘violates the First Amendment’s protections of political speech and activity, freedom of association, and the right to petition Congress as-applied to their alleged conduct, and further contend that the indicted charges are overbroad,'” NBC News reported.
Citing case law, Judge McAfee wrote, “free speech — including political speech — is not without restriction.”
MSNBC host and legal contributor Katie Phang points to these two additional statements from Judge McAfee’s ruling:
“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.”
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“The allegations that the Defendants’ speech or conduct was carried out with criminal intent are something only a jury can resolve.”
Meanwhile, professor of law, NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance offered some insight into the judge’s ruling.
“No surprises,” she wrote. “Judge McAfee rules against Trump’s motion to dismiss the Fulton County case on 1st Amendment grounds. Speech isn’t protected when it’s in furtherance of a crime, like saying ‘stick ’em up’ during a bank robbery.”
But Lawfare’s Anna Bower, pointing to a statement from Trump’s attorney, reports the ex-president’s legal team could try to use this argument again.
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That statement (since updated) reads: “[We] respectfully disagree with Judge McAfee’s order (refusing to dismiss the indictment) and will continue to evaluate [our] options regarding the First Amendment challenges. 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,…’”
Judge McAfee has yet to set a trial date.
CNN summed up the judge’s ruling. Watch below or at this link.