First and foremost, the Special Counsel’s case against the forever disgraced and criminally indicted, former president has nothing to do with the First Amendment but everything to do with conduct, criminal conduct. Nor is this case about ‘Biden’s DoJ’ prosecuting the Orange Ass; We the People, the people of the United States are the plaintiffs.
In fact, the indictment that Special Counsel Jack Smith made public last week specifically addressed and acknowledged the Orange Ass’ First Amendment rights. His gaslighting attorney needs to move on and away from that one. The only morons buying into his argument are a bunch of ignorant and illiterate MAGAts who like to pretend they know how things work; they don’t.
But in today’s filing, TFG’s gaslighting attorney John Lauro proposed “less restrictive rules than those offered by federal prosecutors over what details can be publicly disclosed in the Jan. 6 criminal case against” the Orange Ass.
“His attorneys also repeated Trump’s own claims that prosecutors for the Justice Department are politically motivated in their attempt to restrict the former president’s First Amendment protections.“
President Trump respectfully requests the Court adopt the attached redline, Ex. A (the “Proposed Redline”), which narrows the Proposed Order to shield only genuinely sensitive materials from public view. This more measured approach is consistent with other protective orders entered by this Court in cases concerning the events of January 6, 2021, and appropriately balances the government’s claimed desire to “protect [] highly sensitive categories of material” and “expedite the flow of discovery,” Motion at 3, with the rights of President Trump and the public to free speech and an open proceeding.
“In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the court filings. “Worse, it does so against its administration’s primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party members, and media allies have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated its false allegations.”
It only took Special Counsel Jack Smith three hours to respond to TFG’s request. In his filing, he provided examples of what John Lauro said on every Sunday Show he could appear on:
“On Sunday, August 6, defense counsel appeared on five television programs and discussed
this case in detail, publicly commenting on topics including the parties’ disagreement over the
protective order, the defense’s planned legal arguments, the defendant’s actions and statements
during the charged conspiracies, and expected testimony of a prospective witness.
The defendant’s proposed order would lead to the public dissemination of discovery
material. Indeed, that is the defendant’s stated goal; the defendant seeks to use the discovery
material to litigate this case in the media. But that is contrary to the purpose of criminal discovery,
which is to afford defendants the ability to prepare for and mount a defense in court—not to wage
a media campaign. The Court should instead enter the Government’s proposed order.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan will decide next steps on the protective order, which was just announced it will take place at some point this week.
Read Special Counsel’s Response to TFG’s Request:
