On Thursday, a Fulton County court dismissed a motion by former President Donald Trump and some of his co-defendants to dismiss the Georgia election meddling lawsuit based on First Amendment claims.
Trump and others claimed, in part, that the Fulton County indictment violated their First Amendment right to dispute the 2020 presidential election results.
In his judgment denying the request, Judge Scott McAfee stated, “Even core political speech addressing matters of public concern is not impenetrable from prosecution if allegedly used to further criminal activity.”
The judge ruled that the charge alleges more than merely political remarks.
“The State has alleged more than mere expressions of a political nature,” the court noted in his ruling. “Rather, the indictment charges the Defendants with knowingly and willfully making false statements to public officers and knowingly and willfully filing documents containing false statements and misrepresentations within the jurisdiction of state departments and agencies.”
McAfee also stated that he couldn’t identify “any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”
The protection provided by the Petition Clause of the First Amendment, which permits citizens to contact with government authorities, “does not extend to allegedly fraudulent petitions,” McAfee stated.
“In other words, the law does not insulate speech allegedly made during fraudulent or criminal conduct from prosecution under the guise of petitioning the government,” he stated in the letter.
In a statement, Trump attorney Steve Sadow said they “respectfully disagree” with the verdict, but noted that McAfee allowed them to revisit the matter later.
“It is significant that the court’s ruling was without prejudice, as it made clear that defendants were not foreclosed from again raising their ‘as-applied’ challenges at the appropriate time after the establishment of a factual record,” Sadow said in a statement.
Last August, Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty to all allegations in a sweeping racketeering indictment alleging efforts to change the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Four co-defendants then accepted plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
The former president has criticized the district attorney’s probe as politically motivated.