“Many of the things that the prosecutor is charging here [are] protected speech.”
On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Fox News Contributor and George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump “basically just accuses him of disinformation. This is a disinformation indictment” and charges “many” things that are protected by the First Amendment.
Turley said, “There’s less than meets the eye in this indictment. I thought the last indictment was a very serious threat for Donald Trump. When I take a red pen through material that is protected by the First Amendment, it reduces much of this to a haiku. Many of the things that the prosecutor is charging here [are] protected speech.”
He added that “the most jarring thing about this indictment is that it basically just accuses him of disinformation. This is a disinformation indictment. It says that you were spreading falsehoods, that you were undermining the integrity of the election. That’s all part of the First Amendment. And I think that courts will look skeptically, he might have a fair shot with a D.C. jury and maybe a D.C. judge. He’s going to have a harder time with the courts. And this reminds me of sort of the [McDonnell] complaint, where he took the Virginia governor, got a conviction, and then it was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court. It is a bridge too far.”
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