Georgia judge in 2020 election case rejects Trump’s free speech challenge

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday ruled that the First Amendment does not protect the statements made by former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants that are at issue in the trial. Investigators in the case say the former president attempted to assemble an alternate slate of electors in the state to declare him the winner of the 2020 presidential election. They also say he urged a top Georgia election official to “find” enough votes to make him the winner. In his ruling, McAfee said the statutes the prosecution used to bring charges against Trump and his co-defendants don’t facially violate the First Amendment.

What does this mean? The charges against the former president in Georgia will proceed to trial, barring rulings to dismiss them on other grounds. Fulton County prosecutors allege that Trump and his co-defendants attempted to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

McAfee presided over live-streamed arguments last month on the motion to dismiss. During that hearing, the various defendants’ lawyers argued that any speech made by their clients at issue in the trial was political and, therefore, protected by the First Amendment. Prosecutors argued that the speech was integral to the criminal conduct alleged in their charges.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about the wide net Fulton County prosecutors cast to ensnare Trump.