WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president’s free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.
The motions filed late Monday in the case charging the Republican with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost are on top of a pending argument by defense attorneys that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken within his official role as president.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged a judge last week to reject that argument and is expected to do the same for the latest motions. It is routine for defendants to ask a judge to dismiss the charges against them, but such requests are rarely granted. In Trump’s case, though, the challenges to the indictment could at a minimum force a delay in a prosecution that is set for trial in Washington next March.
Next you’ll tell me I’m not protected by my right to bear arms when I point my pistol at the bank teller, and not protected by my right to free speech when I say, “Put the money in the bag!”
Spoiler: this will be denied and it will not delay the D.C. trial before Judge Chutkan.
I dunno, man. Trump heard it from many people that all he has to do is think, and something becomes constitutional or, in this case, unconstitutional.
Taking a page out of Trump’s book, “If you don’t count them the numbers go down”.
Speech that constitutes fraud is not protected. End of story.
But I have a free speech right to destroy the Constitution!
