Hearings in the Georgia RICO indictment against President Trump and 18 co-defendants are continuing today in an effort to dismiss the case after the judge ruled that Fani Willis can continue her political witchhunt against the leading Presidential candidate.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled earlier this month, ignoring lies on the witness stand, that District Attorney Fani Wills can continue her RICO case against Trump and his associates.
In his 23-page decision, Judge McAfee ordered Fani Willis to address the “appearance of impropriety” before the case can move forward. McAfee ruled Willis can stay on the case but must fire her lover Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor she hired to hunt down Trump.
Nathan Wade resigned from the RICO case following this decision.
However, Judge McAfee announced last Wednesday that President Trump and his co-defendants could appeal the Fani Willis disqualification decision.
HUGE: Georgia Judge Allows Trump to Appeal Fani Willis Disqualification Decision
The Georgia Court of Appeals has 45 days to decide on any appeal to the judge’s disqualification order.
Now, attorneys for Trump and his 18 co-defendants are urging McAfee to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the indictments violate the First Amendment.
CNN reports,
For the first time since a judge ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue to oversee the Georgia 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the focus will return to the details of the sprawling case.
During a hearing Thursday, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia is expected to argue that the indictment should be dismissed because the former president’s political speech is protected by the First Amendment.
In a motion filed in late 2023, before the unsuccessful efforts by defendants to disqualify Willis from the case emerged, Trump attorney Steve Sadow argued that the peddling of conspiracy theories and claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election were at their core political speech, and therefore Trump never should have been indicted.
“The core political speech and expressive conduct alleged in this indictment against President Trump are protected from government regulation and thus criminal prosecution by the State,” Sadow wrote.
According to further argues that “Criminalizing President Trump’s speech and advocacy disputing the outcome of the election—while speech endorsing the election’s outcome is viewed as unimpeachable—is thus blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
Sadow argued this morning that, “But for protected First Amendment speech, President Trump would not be charged in RICO or the other counts.” He continued, “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, and one step further, if it’s not ripe now, and we get into intent, when does the court determine that? Do you determine that after we have a trial?”
Trump attorney Steven Sadow argues for tossing out the Georgia election interference case on First Amendment grounds at a pretrial hearing:
“The reason why we don’t even get to a trial is because it’s unconstitutional to force an accused … to stand trial on protected speech.” pic.twitter.com/tO4NtNBshw
— The Recount (@therecount) March 28, 2024
Watch the hearing live below:
The post WATCH LIVE: Donald Trump Court Hearing on Motion to Dismiss Georgia Case First Amendment Grounds appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
