Former President Trump attempted to distance himself from the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in a series of late-night legal motions.
Former President Trump’s legal team is asking a judge to toss his prosecution in his federal election interference case.
The Daily Beast reports that in one motion, Trump filed to dismiss his federal 2020 election subversion case, citing First Amendment rights surrounding Trump’s belief the election as stolen and claiming the indictment, “taken as true, violates this core principle.”
“The fact that the indictment alleges that the speech at issue was supposedly, according to the prosecution, ‘false’ makes no difference,” the defense wrote. “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.”
“President Trump’s opinion on the subject was just that — an opinion formed based on his view of the available information. Virtually every American, including the cited public officials, had similar access to much of this same information, including a mountain of publicly reported facts and opinions, which were the subject of wall-to-wall media coverage throughout the post-election period and beyond,” they wrote.
“Each official thus had every opportunity to form his or her own conclusions, just like President Trump.”
The second motion seeks dismissal on statutory grounds, arguing, “The prosecution does not explain how President Trump violated these statutes, beyond simply saying he has while regurgitating the statutory language.”
The third motion asks Judge Chutkan to remove “repeated references to the actions of independent actors at the Capitol on January 6, 2021” from his indictment, claiming Trump was not charged “with responsibility for the actions at the Capitol” and therefore the “allegations related to these actions are not relevant and are prejudicial and inflammatory.”
“Because the Government has not charged President Trump with responsibility for the actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, allegations related to these actions are not relevant and are prejudicial and inflammatory. Therefore, the Court should strike these allegations from the Indictment,” his attorneys wrote in a motion to strike “inflammatory allegations” from Trump’s indictment.
The fourth saw Trump request dismissal “on the basis of selective and vindictive prosecution.”
“These demands place an unacceptable burden on President Trump to foreshadow a possible formal defense,” they wrote.
