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Republican state attorneys general oppose new gag order in Trump documents case
MICHAEL MOLINE | 6-17-2024 | Condensed
Twenty-four Republican state attorneys general, including Missouri’s, have interceded in the classified-documents prosecution of Donald Trump, opposing special counsel Jack Smith’s request that the trial judge bar Trump from making hostile statements against federal law enforcement.
In a 27-page amicus brief [ [link removed] ] filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the states complain that Smith’s motion to amend the former president’s bail conditions amounts to interference in the presidential election.
“The free-speech right is at its strongest when it protects political speech,” the brief says.
“Yet special prosecutor Jack Smith, on behalf of the United States, asks this court to curtail that right by ordering a prior restraint on President Trump’s constitutionally protected speech. Such an order is presumptively unconstitutional,” the document continues.
Republican AGs in Iowa, West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming have joined Moody’s brief.
“If granted, this request would prevent the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States from speaking out against the prosecution and the criminal trial process that seek to take away his liberty,” the brief reads.
“That prosecution, of course, is led by a department that President Trump’s political opponent controls,” it adds, referring to Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Once again, we are witnessing a prosecutor seek to keep the presumptive Republican nominee for president from speaking in the midst of an election. The First Amendment, at its core, is designed to protect political speech, and I along with my colleagues will not stand idly by and watch the Biden administration trample the free speech of a Florida citizen,” Moody said in a written statement [ [link removed] ].
Attorneys for Trump, in a brief filed Friday [ [link removed] ], cited Smith’s “most recent shocking display of overreach and disregard for the Constitution.”
It accuses Smith of seeking “to restrict President Trump’s campaign speech as the first presidential debate approaches at the end of this month. Smith’s motion goes one step further in his efforts to interfere in the 2024 presidential election and assist President Biden, by seeking improper restrictions on President Trump’s core protected speech that would continue through the Republican National Convention in July, and thereafter, until this case is dismissed for one or more of the myriad reasons we have identified.”
Moody’s brief argues that restricting Trump’s speech would require showing of a “clear and present danger to the administration of justice.” She’s a Republican who has been an ardent supporter of the former president, filing numerous legal proceedings [ [link removed] ] supporting him and attacking President Biden.
“The special prosecutor cannot make that showing because he has not demonstrated that President Trump’s comments have threatened law enforcement or that his comments have resulted in threats to law enforcement,” her latest brief says.
“[T]he presidential campaign is in full swing. As Americans turn their attention to the upcoming presidential election, courts should take special care to ensure voters can judge the candidates on their own merits. A prior restraint that might limit a candidate’s ability to campaign must meet exacting standards. The proposed order here would not meet those standards,” the brief adds.
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