ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Former President Donald Trump argues that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should protect him from charges brought against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
In a court filing Monday, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, Steve Sadow, said the country’s 45th president believes the 2020 election was actually stolen from him; Therefore, his statements about election misconduct are protected by the First Amendment.
“Here, the reproduction of allegedly ‘false’ statements and facts in the indictment, which are undisputed solely for the purposes of a general objection/motion to dismiss based on the First Amendment, demonstrates that the prosecution of President Trump is based on content-based core policy and language.” Conduct protected by the First Amendment,” Sadow wrote.
“This is the normal course of events in a free society,” the file says. “(‘The answer to the unreasonable is the sensible; to the uninformed, the enlightened: to the outright lie, the simple truth.’) The remedy is not a federal RICO prosecution of the former President of the United States.”
Trump faces 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia and could face several years in prison if convicted.
Trump, along with others – including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – is accused of violating the state’s anti-crime law by plotting to illegally overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The indictment filed in August accuses Trump or his allies of suggesting that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, could find enough votes to win the battleground state; Harassment of a poll worker who faced false allegations of fraud; and trying to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of Electoral College electors who are favorable to Trump.
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