WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president’s free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.

The motions filed late Monday in the case charging the Republican with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost are on top of a pending argument by defense attorneys that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken within his official role as president.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged a judge last week to reject that argument and is expected to do the same for the latest motions. It is routine for defendants to ask a judge to dismiss the charges against them, but such requests are rarely granted. In Trump’s case, though, the challenges to the indictment could at a minimum force a delay in a prosecution that is set for trial in Washington next March.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Next you’ll tell me I’m not protected by my right to bear arms when I point my pistol at the bank teller, and not protected by my right to free speech when I say, “Put the money in the bag!”

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I dunno, man. Trump heard it from many people that all he has to do is think, and something becomes constitutional or, in this case, unconstitutional.

      • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        While that seems to resonate with his cult, it thankfully hasn’t worked at all with any judges in the dozens of times his dipshit lawyers have tried it already.

        (Sorry if that was meant to be more of a joke than I took it for)

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Taking a page out of Trump’s book, “If you don’t count them the numbers go down”.

  • Nougat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Taken together, the motions cut to the heart of some of Trump’s most oft-repeated public defenses: that he is being prosecuted for political reasons by the Biden administration Justice Department …

    He can say that all he wants. That doesn’t make it true.

    … and that he was within his First Amendment rights to challenge the outcome of the election and to allege that it had been tainted by fraud …

    He’s not accused of challenging the outcome of the election or alleging that it had been tainted by fraud. He’s accused of organizing and participating in a scheme to overturn legitimate election results in his favor. The charges have absolutely nothing to do with free speech.

  • hogunner@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Just more spaghetti thrown at the wall except with the caliber of his attorneys it’s probably more likened to them throwing it on the themselves.

  • nul9o9@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If I shit on the whole country, I can challenge any cases against me for being vindictive???

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president’s free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.

    The motions filed late Monday in the case charging the Republican with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost are on top of a pending argument by defense attorneys that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken within his official role as president.

    “Under the First Amendment, each individual American participating in a free marketplace of ideas — not the federal Government — decides for him or herself what is true and false on great disputed social and political questions.”

    Smith’s team conceded at the outset of the four-count indictment that Trump could indeed lawfully challenge his loss to Democrat Joe Biden but said his actions went far beyond that, including by illegally conspiring to block the official counting of electoral votes by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters who supported him stormed the Capitol and caused a violent clash with police and a delay to the proceedings.

    They say the Justice Department appointed Smith as special counsel last year as a way to “insulate Biden and his supporters from scrutiny of their obvious and illegal bias.”

    In addition, Trump’s lawyers are asking to strike from the indictment references to the pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol because they say prosecutors have not accused the then-president of inciting the riot.


    The original article contains 699 words, the summary contains 259 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • tygerprints@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Trump is definitely showing what “not taking your punishment like a man” really is all about. Keep filing frivolous lawsuits and hope the public forgets what a monstrous abomination you are.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, the other fascist, Josh Hallway, did a better fist pump on Jan 6. This old bag of shit will soon be gone from headlines. Wishful thinking, I know.