Judge denies Trump's bid to dismiss Georgia election subversion case

Georgia, United States

An Atlanta-area judge, Scott McAfee, dismissed Trump's argument that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment. This means that the criminal indictment against former president Donald Trump in Georgia stands.

Judge McAfee said, "The defence has not presented, nor is the court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech."

This decision pushes forward the state racketeering case against Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says that she is ready for a trial potentially as soon as August, but till now, no trial date has been set yet for Trump and his 14 co-defendants.

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This is not the first time Judge McAfee has rejected the First Amendment argument. He has taken similar actions against the pleas of other other defendants in the Georgia case. Other state and federal judges have consistently dismissed claims that Trump's actions were protected political speech.

“After interpreting the indictment’s language liberally in favor of the State as required at this pretrial stage, the Court finds that the Defendants’ expressions and speech are alleged to have been made in furtherance of criminal activity and constitute false statements knowingly and willfully made in matters within a government agency’s jurisdiction which threaten to deceive and harm the government,” McAfee's order read.

Trump's Georgia lawyer, Steve Sadow, said that Trump and other defendants respectfully disagree with the judgment and they will explore further legal options. 

“It is significant that the court’s ruling 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’s statement said.

During hearings, Sadow contended that Trump's attempts to challenge the Georgia election results were protected political speech. On the other hand, Fulton County prosecutor Donald Wakeford argued that Trump's lies about the election were part of criminal activity with criminal intentions.