Donald Trump’s lawyer, John Lauro, made the case for his client’s innocence on Sunday talk shows. Legal experts said his points about the First Amendment and “technical violations” of the Constitution sounded more like political arguments than legal ones.
And in the 2012 case, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that when false claims are made to secure"valuable considerations," which Kennedy defined to include a"fraud," it is"well established that the government may restrict speech without affronting the First Amendment."
Healy added that the First Amendment could have come into play had the indictment included an additional charge — one related to inciting the crowd to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. If that charge had been brought, then the 1969 case"would require the government to prove that Trump’s speech was intended to, and likely to, produce imminent unlawful conduct," Healy said.
"What President Trump did not do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything. He asked him in an aspirational way. Asking is covered by the First Amendment.""‘Aspirational’ is not a defense to criminal conduct," said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is now president of West Coast Trial Lawyers."Attempting to commit a crime is a crime."
"Requesting that someone violate the law is not protected by the First Amendment," he said."If I ask you to perjure yourself in a trial, or if I ask if you would accept a payment to commit a murder for me, the First Amendment does not shield me from criminal liability for those ‘aspirational’ questions."The word choice of"technical violation" flummoxed the experts.
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