Fulton County Superior Court Judge, Scott McAfee has rejected Donald Trump’s request for the Georgia election subversion case against him to be dismissed.
His ruling rejects the argument that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected under the First Amendment, thereby upholding the criminal indictment against the former U.S President.
Trump and others had argued, in part, that the Fulton County indictment violated their First Amendment right to challenge the 2020 presidential election results.
McAfee’s refusal to dismiss the indictment came as the free speech defense has repeatedly fallen short in pretrial argument in election meddling cases.
“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge, Scott McAfee wrote in his order.
“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.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge, Scott McAfee
McAfee wrote that “Even core political speech addressing matters of public concern is not impenetrable from prosecution if allegedly used to further criminal activity.”
McAfee noted that the protection afforded specifically by the Petition Clause of the First Amendment, which allows the ability to communicate with government officials, “does not extend to allegedly fraudulent petitions.”
“In other words, the law does not insulate speech allegedly made during fraudulent or criminal conduct from prosecution under the guise of petitioning the government,” he wrote.
McAfee previously rejected similar First Amendment challenges from other defendants in the Georgia case.
McAfee’s ruling is the latest step in moving the state racketeering case against Trump forward.
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 case.
Respectful Disagreement
Trump’s Georgia lawyer, Steve Sadow said in a statement that Trump and other defendants “respectfully disagree” with the ruling and will explore their options.
“It is significant that the court’s ruling 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,” Sadow’s statement read.
At a hearing on the First Amendment issue last month, Sadow argued that Trump’s attempts to upend the Georgia election results were “core political speech.”
More to come…
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