{"id":1989396,"date":"2023-08-03T05:22:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-jack-smith-tests-limits-of-first-amendment-in-jan-6-prosecution\/"},"modified":"2023-08-03T05:24:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:24:48","slug":"donald-trump-indicted-jack-smith-tests-limits-of-first-amendment-in-jan-6-prosecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-jack-smith-tests-limits-of-first-amendment-in-jan-6-prosecution\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump indicted; First Amendment tested in Jan. 6 case by Jack Smith."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdonald-trump-indicted-jack-smith-tests-limits-of-first-amendment-in-jan-6-prosecution%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1989396&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Former President\u200d Donald Trump&#8217;s \u200bLatest Indictment: A First Amendment Defense<\/h2>\n<p>Former \u2063President\u2064 Donald \u200cTrump&#8217;s\u2063 latest indictment \u2063by \u2063the Department of Justice has\u2064 prompted his lawyer to repeatedly point \u2063to the First Amendment as his \u2062primary line\u2062 of defense, saying \u200dit provides\u2062 &#8220;an almost absolute protection.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;These claims were false, and the Defendant\u200c knew that they\u200b were false,&#8221; the 45-page indictment\u2063 read. &#8220;But the defendant repeatedly and widely disseminated \u200cthem anyway\u2014to make his knowingly false claims\u200c appear legitimate, create an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-grand-jury-indicts-trump-over-alleged-efforts-to-overturn-election\/\" title=\"Trump indicted by Federal Grand Jury for alleged election interference.\">intense national atmosphere<\/a> of mistrust and anger, and \u2062erode \u2062public faith in the administration of the election.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Special counsel Jack Smith \u2062revealed\u200d four felony charges against \u2064Trump on Tuesday, including\u200c three conspiracies and one count of\u200c obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. Prosecutors allege Trump continued to peddle lies about\u2064 the\u2062 outcome \u200cof \u200bthe 2020 election \u2064despite knowing that he lost.<\/p>\n<h3>Prosecutors \u2064Challenge\u200b Trump&#8217;s Claims of Election \u200bFraud<\/h3>\n<p>While the\u200d indictment also spelled out Trump&#8217;s\u200d free speech \u2063rights to claim the\u2064 election was stolen, prosecutors \u2064claim the former\u200c president went a step too far when he pursued &#8220;unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-arrested-pence-hits-former-president-over-classified-documents-indictment\/\" title=\"Trump arrested, Pence criticizes him for classified documents indictment.\">including alleged violations<\/a> of \u206418 U.S.C. \u00a7\u2062 371, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1512, and 18 U.S.C. \u200d\u00a7 241.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s attorney in the latest\u200b indictment, John Lauro, told\u200c NPR that prosecutors &#8220;have\u2062 to prove corrupt intent&#8221; under\u2062 18 U.S.C. 1512, which is the obstruction statute.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And corrupt\u200d intent means\u200c that you \u200ddon&#8217;t believe in, \u200cnot only that you don&#8217;t believe in the position that \u2062you&#8217;re advancing, \u2063but you&#8217;re\u2064 doing \u200cit for a corrupt purpose, \u200dyou&#8217;re doing \u200cit to obstruct a government function\u200b rather than\u2062 a\u200d truth-seeking \u2062function,&#8221; Lauro said.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200cattorney also\u200d defended his client by citing so-called advice \u2064given \u2063to \u200cTrump\u2062 by\u200c lawyer John Eastman, who told Trump\u200b there were legal means to delay the certification of the election.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president was told, given advice, that \u200bunder these circumstances, the state legislatures have the ultimate\u2064 ability to qualify electors. He followed that advice,&#8221; Lauro said in a separate \u2063interview with\u200d CNN\u200b on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>In part of the indictment, prosecutors allege Trump and Eastman asked \u200dRepublican\u2064 National Committee Chairwoman\u200c Ronna McDaniel to help the Trump campaign recruit so-called &#8220;fake electors&#8221; in seven battleground states and claimed they \u200d&#8221;falsely represented&#8221; that\u200c the electors would only be used if Trump&#8217;s various lawsuits\u200c against\u200c the \u200belection\u200d results succeeded.<\/p>\n<p>But prosecutors have sought to poke holes into the notion \u2064that Trump&#8217;s claims \u2064of election fraud were an entirely &#8220;truth-seeking function,&#8221; as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-jack-smith-tests-limits-of-first-amendment-in-jan-6-prosecution\/\" title=\"Donald Trump indicted; First Amendment tested in Jan. 6 case by Jack Smith.\">indictment lists names \u2062including<\/a> \u200cformer Vice President Mike Pence, \u2063former Attorney General Bill Barr, and \u2064several other former administration officials who all said there was \u2064no amount \u200bof meaningful election\u2063 fraud that could have altered the results of the \u200c2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s own \u200dwords \u2063are\u200c also cited as part of \u200dprosecutors&#8217; attempts to claim Trump knew that his election fraud claims were false.\u200b &#8220;When the Chairman and another advisor recommended that the Defendant take no action because Inauguration \u2063Day \u2064was only seventeen \u200cdays away and any course of \u2064action could trigger something unhelpful, the Defendant calmly agreed, stating &#8216;Yeah, you&#8217;re \u200dright, it&#8217;s \u2062too late for us. \u2062We&#8217;re\u2062 going to give that to \u200cthe next guy,'&#8221; page 31 of the indictment reads.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2062 former \u2064president is also on record in the indictment telling Pence that he\u2064 was &#8220;too honest&#8221; when he said \u200dhe had no power to overturn the 2020 \u2064election.<\/p>\n<p>Lauro previewed he plans to argue\u2064 to the jury\u2063 that Trump &#8220;was arguing for the truth to come out \u2064in that election cycle rather than the \u200ctruth to\u200c be denied,&#8221; adding that \u2062&#8221;we&#8217;ll win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even\u2064 at\u2064 the end, when he asked Mike\u200d Pence \u2063to pause the voting, he asked\u200b that it be sent back to the states so that the states, in exercising their truth-seeking function, \u2063could either audit or recertify,&#8221; Lauro added.<\/p>\n<h3>The Challenge Ahead\u2063 for Prosecutors<\/h3>\n<p>Case Western Reserve University Law professor Jonathan Adler\u2063 said he believes the biggest challenge ahead for prosecutors is parsing &#8220;what\u2063 is aggressive, perhaps \u2064unethical political activity, from what is actually illegal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The case that Smith has\u2062 set forth, I would argue,\u2063 is plausible\u2064 as a legal case. That doesn&#8217;t mean it will win. It doesn&#8217;t mean it deserves to win, but I think it&#8217;s certainly plausible.\u2062 And we&#8217;ll have to see,&#8221; Adler said.<\/p>\n<p>Adler \u200balso noted examples \u200dof Smith &#8220;being overaggressive in pursuing prosecutions before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At least\u200d two \u200dof Smith&#8217;s\u200b prior\u200d corruption cases have \u200cbeen upended,\u2062 including \u200ba conviction\u2062 of Robert McDonnell, a Republican former \u2062governor of Virginia,\u200d that\u200d was later \u2064overturned \u2064by the \u2064Supreme Court in\u200b an 8-0 decision in June 2016. Trump himself also pardoned the \u2062conviction of former Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican,\u200c on his final day in office.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ\u2062 MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON\u200b EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump&#8217;s lawyer is relying on the First Amendment as his main defense against the Department of Justice&#8217;s recent indictment. Claiming it offers &#8220;almost absolute protection,&#8221; the lawyer argues this in response to four felony charges, including three conspiracies and one count of obstruction, brought forth by special counsel Jack Smith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1989397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1989397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}