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Jack Smith’s Prosecution Of Trump Has A Major First Amendment Problem, Legal Experts Say
Daily Caller ^ | August 01, 2023 8:42 PM ET | KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Posted on 08/02/2023 5:42:44 AM PDT by Red Badger

Legal experts reacted to former President Donald Trump’s third indictment Tuesday, sounding the alarm on how the indictment against his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election prosecutes protected speech.

Trump was charged Tuesday with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, according to the indictment. Legal experts said the charges are built on speech protected by the First Amendment.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Smith issued “the first criminal indictment of alleged disinformation.” “If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku,” he said. “I felt that the Mar-a-Lago indictment was strong. This is the inverse.”

Turley also said on Fox News the indictment is “unfair at points,” noting that it “quotes Trump in his speech about encouraging people to go to Capitol Hill, but like the January 6th committee, it omits where he says, ‘you should go peacefully.'”

The indictment states that Trump “had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won” but then states he “also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting election results.”

Lawyer and Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter called the indictment “45 pages of First Amendment protected activity.” “It’s 45 pages of First Amendment protected activity broken up by four captions listing conspiracy statutes that do not apply,” he tweeted. “It’s not a conspiracy to use free speech and attempt to participate in the political system no matter how badly our garbage elite wants it to be.” (RELATED: ‘Reduces To A Haiku’: Jonathan Turley Says Many Of The Charges In Trump’s Jan. 6 Indictment Are ‘Protected Speech’)

Former New York federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy said Smith had to stretch the statutes to capture Trump’s behavior. “[Smith] has extravagantly stretched these statues in order to try and capture this behavior and that’s because this is a proxy for what should have been a political impeachment process they’re leaving to the criminal justice system, the failure of Congress to carry out a successful impeachment,” McCarthy said.

“If you’ve got evidence that Trump committed incitement, then charge him with incitement,” he continued, adding that they “don’t have a prayer of a case like that.” Constitutional lawyer Robert Barnes tweeted the indictment “threatens core First Amendment freedoms in an unprecedented manner, by making legal advocacy a crime, advocacy to Congress a crime, advocacy to courts a crime, advocacy to the public a crime.”


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: dissent; freespeech; hangjacksmith; harassment; jacksmith; jacktherippersmith; persecution
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1 posted on 08/02/2023 5:42:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Smith is a fraud. He had to indict or he would have been loaded down with death threats from his massahs on the far left.


2 posted on 08/02/2023 5:46:00 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("There's no cryin' in baseball and there's no ethics in politics!" )
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To: FlingWingFlyer

He’s a tool.

Nothing more....................


3 posted on 08/02/2023 5:46:38 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

not sure D’s expect to win in SCourt ultimately in any of the cases - the game is to tie DJT up, bankrupt him, try to get people to give up on him and keep him from upending their corrupt feudal system by occupying WH for second time.it’s our job to get him past ‘GO.’


4 posted on 08/02/2023 5:49:29 AM PDT by avital2
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To: Red Badger

Bold prediction (that will probably not come true):

Trump’s legal team moves for summary dismissal based on First Amendment grounds, the judge denies the motion, Trump appeals directly to the Supreme Court (who has appellate jurisdiction on DC District court) and the denial for summary dismissal gets overturned 9-0, resulting in the dismissal of all charges in this case.

The chilling effect on political speech that this prosecution would have is a bridge too far for even Trump-hating liberals.


5 posted on 08/02/2023 5:49:31 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Red Badger
“If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku,”

Turley rocks...

6 posted on 08/02/2023 5:49:40 AM PDT by GOPJ (What are the odds both Biden White House idogs only bite Secret Service Agents? NOT a coincidence.)
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To: GOPJ

Trump’s lawyer vows to use new charges to ‘re-litigate every single issue’ of the 2020 election.
An attorney who is representing former President Donald Trump in his latest federal criminal indictment vowed to use the charges to “re-litigate every single issue in the 2020 election in the context of this litigation.”

The case gives Trump “an opportunity that he has never had before, which is to have subpoena power since January 6 in a way that can be exercised in federal court,” attorney John Lauro said in a Fox News interview.

Trump is charged with conspiring to overturn his election loss in the 2020 presidential race by pushing fraud claims he knew were false, which prosecutors say amounted to an effort to obstruct the electoral process.

Lauro’s comments suggest that the former president’s legal strategy in this case could include an attempt by his lawyers to portray Trump’s myriad false claims of widespread election fraud in late 2020 as legitimate concerns at the time, regardless of whether or not they were correct.

— Kevin Breuninger


7 posted on 08/02/2023 5:51:04 AM PDT by Liz (More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones. St Teresa of Avila)
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To: Red Badger

Didn’t Hillary’s people actually pressure electors to change their vote from Trump to her in 2016? I even seem to remember a few of the more zealous ones threatening electors who didn’t. Was her constant bitching about fraud and Russian collusion not incitement?


8 posted on 08/02/2023 5:52:17 AM PDT by redangus
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To: Red Badger

Things got hot for Hunter.
So the government had to rush out an indictment of Trump to make it seem like he was the bad guy.

They rushed out a laughable indictment.

And they will probably rush out another one in a few weeks as Hunter’s legal trouble continues to mount.


9 posted on 08/02/2023 5:52:38 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's not a government. It's a criminal enterprise. Fear it, but do not respect it.)
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To: Red Badger
Turley also said on Fox News the indictment is “unfair at points,” noting that it “quotes Trump in his speech about encouraging people to go to Capitol Hill, but like the January 6th committee, it omits where he says, ‘you should go peacefully.'”

Seems to me that Trump or a PAC should create an ad with the pertinent part of the speech. Run that on every leftist outlet there is. There’s another 3 point jump in the polls. It would be more but too many people have been conditioned to not believe their eyes.

10 posted on 08/02/2023 5:52:39 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (The Delay Trump’s trial, delay. Elect Trump President. Trump pardons himself. )
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To: Red Badger

It’s in DC, they’ll convict.


11 posted on 08/02/2023 5:53:38 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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To: GOPJ

While that may be true, the DC jury will have a composite IQ of a glass of cold water and will convict Trump for whatever they are told to do.

Never forget that a jury is composed of people that are too dumb to get out of jury duty.................


12 posted on 08/02/2023 5:54:18 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: brownsfan

The DC jury will have a composite IQ of a glass of cold water and will convict Trump for whatever they are told to do.

Never forget that a jury is composed of people that are too dumb to get out of jury duty.................


13 posted on 08/02/2023 5:54:52 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
Jack Smith’s Prosecution Of Trump Has A Major First Amendment Problem, Legal Experts Say

I think it has a major Article II problem, as well.

14 posted on 08/02/2023 5:54:55 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Make the GOP illegal - everything else will follow)
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To: Red Badger

It doesn’t matter other than for scheduling and sentencing. A DC jury will be stocked full of hardcore communists who will be ready to convict as soon as they’re selected. It will probably get turned over on appeal to SCOTUS, but who knows how the process and timing will shake out over the next year. I expect this judge to move the case through as quickly as possible in order to get Trump behind bars in the middle of campaign season.


15 posted on 08/02/2023 5:55:07 AM PDT by MountainWalker ( )
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To: Liz

DC democrats don’t ‘get it’... the world outside of DC reacts to all of this very differently than they do. Going after Trump on ‘thought crimes’ is insane.


16 posted on 08/02/2023 5:55:33 AM PDT by GOPJ (What are the odds both Biden White House idogs only bite Secret Service Agents? NOT a coincidence.)
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To: Liz

If the indictment is based on his issuing false statements, then his defense is obviously to go to court and prove his statements were not false and had merit. In a fair legal system, he would be given the chance to provide proof to that effect by using subpoena power and by calling witnesses. We’ll see if he’s allowed to do either. It will tell us a lot about what kind if a country we live in.


17 posted on 08/02/2023 5:59:05 AM PDT by redangus
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To: Red Badger

A real great combination: Smith is a low IQ, high achiever who has been a loser in his law career and Judge Chutkan who is another low IQ achiever who is looking for higher levels in her career by using Trump as a stepping stone.


18 posted on 08/02/2023 5:59:31 AM PDT by chopperk ( )
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To: Red Badger
Smith and Biden should be indicted for bringing frivolous political shameful lawfare.
19 posted on 08/02/2023 6:00:21 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Red Badger

The constitution will be a problem to the left? Um doubtful- they ignore the constitution.


20 posted on 08/02/2023 6:02:03 AM PDT by Bob434
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