Former President Donald Trump is reportedly distancing himself from the Capitol riots by asking the court to toss his January 6-related case.
On Monday, Trump’s legal team asked a judge to toss his prosecution in his federal election interference case, arguing that it’s a vindictive prosecution that violates the former president’s free speech.
“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 45th president’s legal team went on to reiterate that the claims that he stole the 2020 presidential election were baseless.
“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,” they continued.
Special counsel Jack Smith, however, argued that Trump illegally attempted to block the transfer of power by relying on false allegations and by illegally plotting to block Congress’ official counting of electoral votes. Despite this, Smith still acknowledged in his four-count indictment that Trump could legitimately challenge his electoral defeat.
This comes as Trump has been charged for the fourth time this year for his alleged involvement in attempting to overturn 2020 presidential election results, as well as the January 6 Capitol riot.
He has since invoked the Presidential Records Act and drawn comparisons between his treatment and that of President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.
Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis was in charge of prosecuting Trump and his co-defendants. She requested in a petition recently that the trial start on October 23. The 45th president is accused of other crimes in New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C.; a judge will eventually decide when his trial in Georgia will start.
