The ex-President is going with what he has been leaning on across the board against the judges…..
‘He can say whatever he wants and can’t be held criminally liable for the results….’
The First Amendement to the United States Constituion on steroids…..
The judge in th case has already turned thumbs down on the same defense for others in the case…..
Hmmmmm?
(Trump does have a history of suing people who say things against him he doesn’t like)
Donald Trump will defend himself against charges that he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia by arguing his claims about voting fraud were “core political speech” protected by the First Amendment.
In a filing on Monday in Fulton County Superior Court, Trump attorney Steven Sadow said the former president will challenge his indictment on racketeering, conspiracy and other charges by asserting his right to political speech and expressive conduct.
Trump relied on numerous false claims of voting fraud as he tried unsuccessfully three years ago to convince the Georgia General Assembly and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory.
The former president was one of 19 people charged in what prosecutors describe as a “criminal enterprise” that sought to overturn the election. Four people already have pleaded guilty to various crimes for their roles in the alleged conspiracy.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts in August.
Judge Scott McAfee has already dismissed First Amendment challenges from two other defendants – attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell (both of whom later pleaded guilty). The judge cited numerous court cases in ruling that he must first establish a factual record before considering such challenges. McAfee said those facts must be established at trial.
In Monday’s court filing, Sadow argued the judge can consider a pre-trial First Amendment challenge if the facts laid out in the indictment are not disputed by the defendants. To pursue such a defense, Trump presumably would have to acknowledge his voting fraud claims were false…..
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Trump is relying on a similar First Amendment defense in a separate election subversion case in federal court…..
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There will be NO plea deals for the top target’s of the Fulton County DA’s 2020m election fraud case….
Fulton county prosecutors do not intend to offer plea deals to Donald Trumpand at least two high-level co-defendants charged in connection with their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, according to two people familiar with the matter, preferring instead to force them to trial.
The individuals seen as ineligible include Trump, his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Aside from those three, the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has opened plea talks or has left open the possibility of talks with the remaining co-defendants in the hope that they ultimately decide to become cooperating witnesses against the former president, the people said.
The previously unreported decision has not been communicated formally and could still change, for instance, if prosecutors shift strategy. But it signals who prosecutors consider their main targets, and how they want to wield the power of Georgia’s racketeering statute to their advantage…
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The plea deals underscore the strategy that Willis has refined over successive Rico prosecutions: extending offers to lower-level defendants in which they plead guilty to key crimes and incriminate higher-level defendants in the conspiracy pyramid.
As the figure at the top of the alleged conspiracy, Trump was always unlikely to get a deal. But the inclusion of Meadows and Giuliani on that list, at least for now, provides the clearest roadmap to date of how prosecutors intend to take the case to trial.
The preference for the district attorney’s office remains to flip as many of the Trump co-defendants as possible…