Attorneys for former President Donald Trump moved Monday to formally request a judge throw out the 202o election criminal racketeering case against him in Georgia.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the Georgia case, filed court papers insisting that the allegations against his client involve “core political speech” protected by the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment, in affording the broadest protection to political speech and discussion regarding governmental affairs, not only embraces but encourages exactly the kind of behavior under attack in this Indictment,” wrote Sadow and Jennifer Little, another Trump attorney.
“The Fulton County prosecutors have not identified any non-speech or non-advocacy conduct in the allegations against President Trump,” they continued.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with violating a racketeering statute as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. A handful of defendants, including Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty, presumably to avoid long prison sentences.
The remaining defendants, including Trump, maintain they did nothing wrong. They have pleaded not guilty and continue to deny wrongdoing.
Trump argues the charges, and others made by Democrat politicians and Biden’s Justice Department, are politically motivated “lawfare.”
In addition to criminal and civil charges, his ballot access has been challenged in liberal jurisdictions on “Insurrection Clause” grounds. While Trump has successfully defended those challenges in a handful of states, an opinion from the Colorado Supreme Court that Trump is disqualified from the primary ballot appears headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the Fulton County case, Trump’s attorneys maintain the prosecutors have failed to show an actual crime.
“An examination of the indictment reveals why: none of the allegations relate to any non-speech or nonadvocacy conduct,” they wrote. “Every charge and overt act alleged against President Trump rests on core acts of political speech and advocacy that lie at the heart of the First Amendment.”
Willis has come under fire for alleged political motivations in prosecuting Trump. Trump alleges Willis, a Democrat, ran for office telling voters she would “get Trump.”
Willis disputes those claims. Yet while she maintains her position that she is simply enforcing the law, other actions cast doubt on her claims.
Willis has said she is in no hurry to resolve Trump’s legal issues before November’s general election and recently made clear that she intends to still have Trump on trial on Election Day 2024.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (Brynn Anderson/AP)
“I believe in that case there will be a trial, I believe the trial will take many months,” she told the Washington Post’s Global Women’s Summit. “And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025.”
She also made clear, in emails recently reported, that she and her team of prosecutors want prison sentences for Trump and his codefendants.
In addition, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, in a hearing in July, criticized Willis for hosting a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate running against one of the investigation’s potential targets.
“It’s a ‘What are you thinking?’ moment,” McBurney said. “The optics are horrific.”
Trump’s attorneys are also expected to seek to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds.
The case is Georgia v. Donald Trump, No. 23SC188947, in the Fulton County Superior Court.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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