Donald Trump defense attorney Steven Sadow at a Thursday hearing argued for tossing out the Georgia election interference case on First Amendment grounds.
“But for protected First Amendment speech, President Trump would not be charged in RICO or the other counts. Take out the protected speech and you don't have an underlying basis for which to charge him,” Sadow said at a pretrial motions hearing in Fulton County, Georgia.
“And since that violates the Constitution, as applied to the charges here, and his speech here, and his position here, this is ripe for a constitutional challenge.”Sadow argued Trump’s election lies in 2020 were protected speech and not criminal acts, and that the defense attempt to dismiss the criminal charges against Trump, including racketeering, could be approved before any trial.
“I mean, do we go through the whole trial? God forbid there should be a conviction and then we go back to try and determine as applied?” Sadow said. “I'm suggesting the reason it's right now and the reason why we don't even get to a trial is because it's unconstitutional to force an accused — be it the … former president or anyone else — to stand trial on protected speech.”
Fulton County prosecutor Donald Wakeford rejected the claim that the First Amendment protected Trump’s false election claims, given that his lies furthered a criminal conspiracy.
“He’s never been prosecuted for lying,” Wakeford said. “He’s been prosecuted for lying to the government.”
Judge Scott McAfee made no determination at the hearing on whether he would dismiss the case or when the trial would start.
