Below is my column in The Messenger on the renewed effort of Special Counsel Jack Smith to gag former President Donald Trump. At the same time, Judge Arthur Engoron has repeatedly fined Trump for his public statements about the New York fraud case. Engoron declared this week “Anybody can run for president. I am going to protect my staff.”
There is widespread support for barring attacks on court staff and Trump did attack the Court’s clerk in a prior posting. However, most of his comments have been directed at Engoron and his alleged hostility toward Trump. Where to draw this line is the subject of this column. In my view, criticism of the case, the court, and the prosecutor should be treated as protected speech.
Here is the column:
In 2016, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion overturning a conviction that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had seemed willing to secure at whatever cost to the rule of law. The case involved the prosecution of former governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.), and the lead DOJ prosecutor was now-special counsel Jack Smith. The court dismissed the “tawdry tales” offered by the DOJ and declared that it was far more concerned with the damage that Smith was causing to the legal system with his virtually limitless interpretation of criminality.
The rebuke came to mind this week as Smith continued his unrelenting effort to gag former president Donald Trump before the 2024 election. Some of us have previously denounced the gag order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan as unconstitutional, but even that order was more limited than what Smith had demanded.
Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a leading critic of Trump, has come out against Smith’s efforts as an attack on the First Amendment.
Undeterred, Smith now wants to reinstate and expand the gag on Trump, citing Trump’s comments about his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who reportedly has been given an immunity deal by Smith. (Meadows’ lawyer disputes those reports.)
Smith wants to bar Trump from criticizing any witnesses as well as the prosecution and the court. That would include criticisms of former Vice President Mike Pence, currently one of his opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on his allegations linked to the earlier election.[Update: after this column ran, Pence withdrew from the presidential campaign]
Of course, gagging Trump will not materially affect the jury pool in the case. The Smith prosecutions are one of the biggest issues in this election. Moreover, it will not protect potential witnesses from withering criticism in the middle of an election that could turn on the public view of these cases.
Indeed, Smith has insisted on trying Trump before the election but now also wants to prevent him from speaking fully about the case before the election. Trump alone would be gagged, even as other politicians and pundits debate the merits of the cases and the countervailing allegations of the weaponization of the criminal justice system.
The prior order issued by Judge Chutkan is shockingly vague and overbroad. It bars Trump from “targeting” Smith or his staff or potential witnesses or the “substance of their testimony.” It leaves an undefined and uncertain line as Trump campaigns on what he (and millions of citizens) view as the abuse of the criminal justice system to target President Biden’s main political opponent.
Smith would add to the scope and ambiguity of the order in his latest motion. He is arguing that the court should “modify the defendant’s conditions of release … by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches.”
Consider that for a moment: Smith would treat comments about witnesses, such as Meadows or Pence, as an effort to communicate with a witness.
Thus, Smith continues to litigate with a sense of utter abandon, showing his signature lack of concern for the implications of his legal arguments. It is the type of blind purpose that leads — as it did in the McDonnell case — to a unanimous ruling against you on an otherwise divided Supreme Court.
Ironically, it calls for a level of self-restraint that the trial court itself failed to show in the past. In sentencing a rioter in 2022, Judge Chutkan said that January 6 defendants “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.” She added that it was “a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
Despite clearly indicating with her comment that she believed Trump should be jailed (long before he was indicted), Chutkan has refused to recuse herself in this trial.
The lack of restraint shown by Smith only magnifies the lack of leadership from Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general has repeatedly said that he would give the special counsel full authority and independence. However, that would not ordinarily mean that the attorney general would reduce himself to a mere pedestrian in this process.
This is an example of the ever-shrinking profile of Garland at the Justice Department. He has often told Congress that his knowledge of controversies is limited to what he has read in press accounts. Even beyond the special counsel’s investigations, he seems as proactive as a ficus plant.
Yet, this new gag motion presents a far more serious cost to Garland’s passive role at the department. Smith is taking a hatchet to the First Amendment in these motions. In doing so, he is fueling anger over the perception of a weaponized criminal justice system.
Smith’s deafening attacks on free speech are matched equally by Garland’s utter silence. The attorney general seems to believe that removing himself entirely from these investigations is more important than guaranteeing that his department does not become the enemy of core constitutional rights.
As Smith seems intent on inviting another unanimous Supreme Court opinion against his department, Garland may want to consider voicing a modicum of concern over the cost to free speech in Smith’s efforts to gag Donald Trump.
Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.
“The Smith prosecutions are one of the biggest issues in this election.” (JT)
All of the political prosecutions have three twisted motivations:
1) To drain Trump financially and spiritually — as in: You still here, and have money to be here?
2) To make Trump toxic with swing voters — as in: Really? You want to vote for a multi-indicted candidate?
3) Give the MSM an epithet to attach to Trump’s name — as in: CBS reports that the multi-indicted Trump . . .
This is a Leftist pattern of kneecapping Trump that began in 2016. Tonya Harding must be jealous.
Mr. Turley, you simply cannot bring yourself to state the obvious about your former colleague, Merrick Garland, in any of your mentions of his conduct over the last three years. This time, your criticism is his “ever shrinking profile” and “passive role”.
Merrick Garland, since day one, has been acting as the primary police state fascist in Biden’s administration. Biden’s version of Stalin’s Lavarentiy Beria, minus the bullet to the back of the head in the dank basement of a prison; “show me the man and I’ll find you his crimes”. He has been performing as an active police state fascist not just towards Trump. But also towards parents raising objections at school board meetings, Catholics, right to life advocates, etc.
Mr. Turley, Merrick Garland has been consistently openly and obviously acting as a weaponized police state fascist – and you, sir, simply cannot bring yourself to admit his actions show that he is all of that.
I wonder: are you embarrassed at your inability to state the obvious about your former colleague?
Two + years of corruption at the Biden-Harris DOJ is exceeded only by the corruption of the eight year administration of the Obama-Biden DOJ. Articles featuring official Democratic Party corruption are treated as one-off events. Mr. Turley, if Garland’s passivism resembles a Ficus tree, your unwillingness to get in the faces of the corrupt DOJ reminds me of a Venus Fly Trap starving.
I heard that Judge Chutkan and Special Counsel Smith won’t even let Trump participate in any RNC debate — what an outrageous abuse of power, election interference, and violation of the First Amendment! 😀
Wow, the Leftist fanatics running the Democratic Party enthusiastically support gagging, leaking, smearing, and cheating to maintain power. Persecution through prosecution is unworthy of a great democracy. Where’s your outrage over Biden’s refusal to hold primaries, let alone debate any of his Democrat opponents? Matter of fact, Biden refuses to participate in any serious press interviews. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party-dominated federal government is clearly engaged in illegal, unethical, unconstitutional, dangerous, and un-American actions intended to undermine another presidential election. You seem too tuned out from reality to understand your family, your community, and you will suffer along with all of us if this corruption isn’t destroyed. Your business as usual attitude proves you have very little knowledge of the size, scope, and import of this existential threat.
“Crazy Abe” threw his opponents in prison under his illegal, unconstitutional, and forcible imposition of the suspension of habeas corpus.
What a wackjob!
Psychotic tyrants may do whatever they like, right?
And to think, “Crazy Abe’s” “Reign of Terror” began with his high-criminal, and unconstitutional denial of the freedom of and right to not-prohibited and fully constitutional secession.
Of course, the incremental implementation of the “dictatorship of the hired help” of communism (liberalism, progressiveism, socialism, democratism, RINOism, AINOism) in America began with Lincoln and his fellow traveler, Karl Marx.
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“They consider…that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through…the RECONSTRUCTION of a social world.”
– Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln, 1865
Mike Pence dropping out of the presidential race makes judge Chutkan’s gag order much easier to defend. She just re-instated the gag order pending appeal.
That makes no sense
I haven’t read your article yet, and I might agree in principle. I will read it in full later. However, given the way a relatively small faction of Trump’s supporters to read subliminal messaging by him as though he’s a mafia Don, this should be cause for special exception to the rules.
What other “special exemption”s from the Bill of Rights do you think are appropriate? Only for people you don’t like, though, right?
The Supreme Court has ruled that gag orders are constitutional as long as they meet certain criteria. None of our rights is absolute. Other speech exceptions include perjury and defamation.
I forgot to add, however, that none of these gag orders directed at Trump are constitutional as they fail to meet that criteria.
Nor does Garland choosing Jack Smith with his long record of prosecutorial abuse in service to Obama/Biden qualified to meet the criteria required of a Special Counsel.
You’re hallucinating.
What should be far more concerning is that the vast majority of Soviet Democrat voters enthusiastically endorse Merrick Garland running the DoJ and selecting Obama’s hitman prosecutor Jack Smith for a return engagement (as an unbiased special counsel, no less) as though Garland were Stalin’s Lavarentiy Beria: “Show me the man and I’ll find you his crime”.
And the only reason Merrick Garland can perform as a police state fascist like Stalin’s Lavarentiy Beria is that Soviet Democrat voters believe that Trump, parents, traditional Catholics, right to life activists, etc are all justification for special exception to the normal rule of equal justice for all.
Ultimately, by supporting police state fascism that we’re seeing from Merrick Garland, these judges, and Jack Smith with his long, long history of stretching the law far beyond recognition, those who support and make excuses for it (i.e. “special exception to the rules”) identify themselves as also being anti-American police state fascists.
Old Airborne Dog: I want you to explain to me just HOW or WHY Trump should get away with: 1. stealing classified documents AFTER being told he couldn’t take them; 2. refusing to return them; 3. lying about declassifying them; 4. returning a few and lying about retaining others; 5. disclosing the contents to people who aren’t authorized to receive classified information; 6. storing them in a bathroom, on a stage and in a pool locker. HOW is it “biased” to charge Trump for this conduct when NO ONE else would have been allowed to get away with it?
Here’s this, too (From Newsweek, 10/9/23):
“Donald Trump’s sharing of alleged classified intelligence to Russian officials in the White House has come under scrutiny amid a large-scale attack by the Hamas Islamist military group against Israel.
In May 2017, the former president defended his actions after he was found to have discussed sensitive details about an alleged Islamic State (ISIS) plot with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. Trump said he had an absolute right to do so. The intel was said to have been provided to the U.S. from Israel.
It was suggested at the time that the former president’s handing over sensitive information from Israel could have damaged the relationship between the two countries. It also could have raised the possibility that the details could be passed from Russia to Iran, the Gulf nation that is a fierce adversary of Israel and has long supported Hamas.
On Saturday, Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union, launched a large-scale attack against Israel, resulting in the deadliest day of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict for decades. More than 700 people have been killed in Israel, and a further 400 in Gaza, since the incursion by Hamas, according to the Associated Press.”
The numbers now are much higher.
I’d like to know HOW in the world anyone could think Trump could ever be trusted with classified information ever again. He’s either stupid or evil–maybe both. He doesn’t get it–we exchange information with our allies–they tell us things–we tell them things–with the understanding that the information exchanged is “classified”–meaning only those with security clearances may have access. Trump doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the critical need for keeping this information secret. He has a massive ego and needs to show off–to prove what a big shot he thinks he is. He’s proven he’s not above bragging about having access to classified information.
This is why Jack Smith’s prosecution is SO important. NO ONE should get away with what Trump has done–NO ONE. Our allies are now wary of us–they don’t know, and neither do we–what information Trump has negligently or deliberately disclosed to the wrong people. We don’t know what guests or visitors to Mar A Lago might have gotten into the boxes he negligently had lying around. The world is in crisis right now, and Trump may well have some degree of blame for the Hamas attack.
“Trump may well have some degree of blame for the Hamas attack.”
There it is! The Hamas attack is not Bidens fault, its Trumps!!
You are seriously eaten up with it. Its surprising you even survived the Trump years. I would give anything to have been a fly on the wall at your parents house the night Trump won, to see your reaction. Clearly, 4 years of Trump turned your brain to mush. No doubt, YOU would not survive another term. LMAO
I am not the one saying that Trump’s disclosure of classified information about Israel MAY have helped Hamas–intelligence experts say this. From PBS:
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
It was The New York Times that first reported yesterday that Israel was the source of that classified intelligence about ISIS that President Trump allegedly divulged to Russian diplomats.
If true, what are the ramifications, not only for the political relationship between the U.S. and Israel, but the close ties between the nations’ intelligence services?
For that, we turn to Ronen Bergman. He’s the intelligence correspondent for Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. His forthcoming book is called “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations.”
And he joins me now from Tel Aviv.
Ronen, may I first ask you, were you able to confirm that this intelligence that the president allegedly divulged was in fact from Israel, and, if so, what the reaction among Israeli intelligence has been?
RONEN BERGMAN, Yedioth Ahronoth:
This is not yet finally confirmed.
There’s an investigation going on in Israel, trying to check which of the many, many items of intelligence that was delivered to the United States during the last three or four months regarding Syria, the activity of ISIS, Russia, Hezbollah, Iran, all closely guarded by Israel, which of these items were given by President Trump to Foreign Minister Lavrov.
As per the emotions or the reactions inside Israeli intelligence community, I would say they are ballistic. There are many people who are extremely upset. And one of them told me, this is sort of — this is a kick, violation in our sacred trust of each other, a blunt violation of everything the two countries agreed.
That person said that maybe the president has an authority, as he tweeted, to deliver U.S. intelligence, but he doesn’t have any authority to share Israeli intelligence and intelligence that was shared with these close circles of Americans, and just Americans, with anyone else.”
SO, ISRAEL IS UPSET OVER TRUMP’S DIVULGING OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
And, as for Republicans trying to blame Biden by lying about taxpayer money going to Iran (from CNN):
The US government is not yet willing to draw a direct line between Iran and the shocking sneak attacks by Hamas militants on Israel outside the Gaza Strip, but President Joe Biden’s domestic political rivals are convinced.
Former President Donald Trump argued, falsely, that US taxpayer dollars went to Iran and were funneled to Hamas. He also, with characteristic over-the-top rhetoric, argued his administration “brought so much peace to the Middle East.” And during a campaign appearance in New Hampshire, he tried to compare the violent attacks on Israel with the flow of asylum-seeking migrants at the US border with Mexico – although there is clearly no comparison between asylum-seekers and terrorists killing hundreds.
Sen. Tim Scott, the Republican from South Carolina, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday night that the Biden administration was “complicit” in the attack on Israel because of the same Iranian funds criticized by Trump.
Biden’s policies, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was speaking in Iowa, were “very deferential to the Iranians, the Iranians we now know were intimately involved in orchestrating these attacks.”
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was US ambassador to the United Nations for part of Trump’s administration, said the US must support Israel to guard against Iran. “Israel is the frontline of defense for the Iranian regime and terrorists that want to hurt us and want to hurt our friends,” Haley said, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
This is a domestic debate about Iran that will coincide with what could be a protracted war between Israel and Hamas.
Why did Trump say taxpayer dollars went to Iran?
Most of what Trump said is false. US taxpayer dollars did not go to Iran.
However, the Biden administration negotiated for the release in September of five Americans who had been held by Tehran. What bought their freedom was the release of $6 billion in Iranian funds – proceeds from the sale of its oil held in restricted South Korean accounts – frozen by international sanctions on Iran. Read more on the prisoner deal from CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim.
The deal stipulated that the money would have to be used for humanitarian purposes and that Qatar, which helped broker the deal, would hold the money rather than having it go straight to Iran.
$6 billion could have freed up money elsewhere
Critics, like Haley, have argued that if Iran got $6 billion for humanitarian purposes, that frees up money elsewhere.
“They go and spread terrorism every time they get one dollar,” Haley said. “It doesn’t go to the Iranian people. It does go to terrorist attacks.”
The arguments are similar when it comes to the deal between Iran and Western countries regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
That deal, engineered by former President Barack Obama and Biden during his time as vice president, was subsequently scuttled by Trump. But it was never to send US taxpayer money to Iran; rather, it was to lift some sanctions on Iran in exchange for controls on Iran’s nuclear program.
IRAN’S MONEY NEVER GOT RELEASED AND IS STILL BEING HELD BY QATAR. NO US TAXPAYER MONEY WAS EVER APPROVED TO SEND TO IRAN.
I ask again: why on earth would anyone ever allow Trump anywhere near classified information? He’s proven he can’t be trusted. Republicans running for office just can’t seem to get the facts correct, either.
What subliminal messages? Congress outlawed subliminal messaging decades ago for radio and the boob tube. Frequencies. Do you early believe ppl support Trump only bc they are subject to subliminal messaging? Like they have no self agency or own brain not warshed? Ppl support Trump bc he’s put his own neck and billions- and life on the line to Maga! We let the would be sublimal mind benders take in fact the levers of govt ! Generals selecting their replacements. …. opm filtering out applicants! The ses deep state of actual nazis stazi. We the people cry foul….and you th8nk subliminal messaging…? That message my friend is the opposite…the only thing between total enslavement and being a zombie drone is a man to wake us all from our slumber. It’s not subliminal it’s inners less even more die. Needlessly. To greed and influence over the 5000 ses deep state… groomed for decades. Drain it!
Why?
EVs are much less expensive to operate per mile. Unfortunately an EV is still a rather expensive purchase.
Trump Warns Meadows On Truth Social Media
“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote.
“BUT, when you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING…Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation,” Trump continued. “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?”
From Truth Social Media, October 24, 2023, as reported in The Hill, 10/25
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If Trump was a mafia don, writing this to warn a turncoat soldier, it would most certainly be regarded as a case of witness tampering.
Which may be why Judge Chutkan lifted her administrative stay on the gag order tonight.
You should seek help. But before you call for an appointment with a psychiatrist, please cite the case in which a mafia don was prosecuted for saying anything even sort of resembling what President Trump said. I’ll wait…..
Trump is not the president
He is A president – just as Clinton Bush, and Obama are refered to as president.
That wasn’t a “warning”. It is a contemplative musing that is completely unobjectionable in any circumstances.
Trump did not “write” to a turncoat witness. He made the statement over the internet, open to view by every person on earth. This is a very strange way to communicate a threat of violence.
“Just a direct assault on the First Amendment. Disgraceful. Something that should be appealed as quickly as possible all the way to the Supreme Court.” JD VANCE
https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1713960696759652776
“A political activist pretending to be a judge is mulling an order that would prevent Trump from “invective” against “perceived enemies.” If you gag Trump in the middle of a campaign it’s a direct assault on the First Amendment and the judge should be immediately impeached.” JD VANCE
Nope JD is wrong .
Katy Chevigny is wife of prosecutor Jack Smith. Chevigny donated to President Biden’s campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission. She donated $1,000 each to Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund in September of 2020. Chevigny also made multiple small donation to the Democratic platform ActBlue and made a donation to MoveOn.org’s PAC, the FEC reecords show.
https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=chevigny%2C+katy
ActBlue is a Dark Money fundraiser for Left Wing politicos like Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff, AOC, and the usual Left Wing suspects in Congress. ActBlue also acts as a DNC troll farm that bankrolls online trolls to propagate DNC lies, misinformation and Left Wing talking points so as to destabilize US Democracy and subvert the rule of law. George Soros donates heavily to Act Blue
No wonder the Left Wing Democrat Federal Judges and George Soros funded DOJ Special Counsel want to silence Donald Trump.
Judge Chutkan has denied Donald Trump’s motion to stay her gag order and lifted the temporary hold she placed on it.
The indictments are a ploy. Nobody wants a trial. They are a cudgel to beat Trump with by the media, Democrats, and never Trump Republicans for the next year. The trial will be delayed until after the election and then Trump will be pardoned by Biden, hoping to set a precedent for his pending legal problems.
Trump not only waived his right to speedy trials, he has been trying to delay them. Smith’s filings show that he does want trials; ditto for all of the plaintiffs, plaintiff attorneys, DAs, … involved in other criminal and civil suits where Trump’s the defendant (Willis, Bragg, James, Kaplan, etc.). Highly doubtful that Biden would pardon Trump in the federal cases, and he cannot pardon Trump in the non-federal criminal cases.
Santa visits every home on Christmas Eve, the tooth fairy leaves money for pulled teeth, and you are nucken futs. Slow night at the West Hollywood baths…again?!!!
No, they want the trial.
They want Trump to be found guilty.
They want to then jail him while he appeals this…
Or still force him to appeal it.
Hey Jon…The Rule of Law is DEAD in America
Exactly! This from a former AUSA.
Jon still doesn’t get it….Democrats are Fascists fighting a Civil War against America
Katy Chevigny is wife of prosecutor Jack Smith. Smith’s wife is a Biden donor who helped create a documentary on Michelle Obama, federal records and her IMDb profile say. Chevigny’s mother, Bell Gale Chevigny was a professor, writer, and Soros senior justice fellow, according to Prison Legal News.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/annualreports/pln_2012_annual_report_final.pdf
Jonathan: No one disagrees, not even you, that Judge Engoron was justified in imposing 2 fines on DJT for continuing to violate court orders. DJT’s attacks on Engoron’s chief clerk were egregious. So what is different about what Jack Smith is asking of Judge Chutkan? The only difference is that Smith wants Chutkan to prevent DJT from threatening witnesses–like Mark Meadows.
Meadows has definitely entered into an immunity agreement with Smith and will testify against DJT. The only Q is how much will he say? That’s what keeps DJT awake at nights. He knows Meadows could really hurt his case so he goes on Truth Social and says he doesn’t expect Meadows to “lie about the Rigged and Stolen” election but “merely for getting IMMUNITY”, but “Some people would make that deal. They are weaklings and cowards…”. It’s DJT telling Meadows to keep his mouth shut–and that’s witness tampering. In his filing Jack Smith pointed out that DJT is now trying to “use external influences to distract the trail in his favor. These actions, particularly when directed against witnesses and trial participants, pose a grave threat to the very notion of a fair trial based on the facts and the law”.
Now you falsely claim Smith’s filing is an attempt “to prevent him [DJT] from speaking fully about the case before the election” and “Trump alone would be gagged”. You apparently didn’t read the filing carefully or even know the basics of the case. First, Smith is not asking that DJT be deterred from criticizing, in general terms, the prosecution. He is free to do that. What DJT should be prevented from doing is threatening and intimidated witnesses. That’s the only purpose of the request from Judge Chutkan. Second, DJT is the ONLY defendant in the DC case. So, naturally, any gag order would apply ONLY to him. Didn’t you read the indictment? Seems you really don’t know much about the case after all.
The title of your column is “Jack Smith’s War on Free Speech”. In his filling Jack Smith had an answer: “The First Amendment…particularly when balanced against the bedrock values of a fair trial unaffected by external influences”–does not grant free rein “to make the sort of fact-free, disparaging, inflammatory, and ad hominem attacks that, as the defendant knows, tend to provoke harassment, threats, and intimidation from his followers”.
Old habits die hard. DJT has always felt he is above the law. Like a Mafia boss he pays the legal bills of underlings so they won’t testify against. When that doesn’t work he tries to threaten and intimate judges and witnesses that could hurt him. He did that in the Fulton County case and now he is doing it with Mark Meadows. I guess you think all that is just an exercise in “free speech”. Strange definition of “free speech”.
DJT thinks of himself as a Mafia don. But he is too much a coward to play the role faithfully. He doesn’t have the stomach to send someone out to kill a witness. If DJT were a real Mob boss, Mike Pence wouldn’t be around to certify the counting of the electoral votes!
I see Fani Willis has quite a linneage. Just found out her daddy was a black panther. Donald Trump is a racist. Independent Bob.
LOL… anyone go jail for the Russian Hoax? Maybe you are unaware that Democrats are Fascists Fight AGAINST America?
Why have 10 million illegals been admitted?
What did Trump say that was a threat to the Clerk? He insinuated that Meadows was weak, and that is also a threat and witness tampering? You sure can read your desires into vague statements, can’t you? You are diseased, my friend; TDS is eating your brain. Get help!
OT, some selected headlines on citizen free press today. Comments in parentheses are mine:
-Hamas terrorism chief found living in London, on UK taxpayer dime
-Britain is filled with Hamas terrorists
-Virginia Democrat pushed after-school Satanism club, has fixation on the demonic
-Air traffic diversity hiring is creating a deadly situation in the skies
-Terrorists take over Brooklyn Bridge, call for “elimination of Israel”
-Covid architects want “grace and forgiveness” (fat chance – see video below)
-George Soros is funding the Jew haters
-Student loans drove the skyrocketing cost of tuition (as if we didn’t know that)
-10,000,000 new illegals (thanks Joe)
-Babylon Bee headline actually happened (Colleges graciously offer attics for Jewish students to hid during violent rallies)
-Democrats now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis (whereas Israel is a pluralistic liberal democracy with women’s rights, gay rights, participation by all segments of society, Palestinians want Islamist state that would subjugate women, kill gays, and suppress freedom of religion)
-Biden approval drops eleven percentage points with Democrats
If China could release “China Flu, 2019” in the months before the 2020 election with impunity to assist Obama in his coup d’etat against Real President Donald J. Trump, Hamas can release biological and chemical weapons against Israel, right?
That’s why we should be careful whom we train in certain sciences in our universities.
We schooled the 9/11 savages on how to fly a commercial jet. How did that work out?
The 9/11 terrorists took flying lessons at a flight school at Huffman Aviation in Florida–which is not a college or university.
Kansas Elder: Oh my! Doug Wilson holds forth from his ‘church’ empire over in Moscow. Idaho, that is. Most of us around here try our best to ignore him.
Kansas Elder: Doug Wilson holds forth from his church over in Moscow, Idaho. We do our best to ignore him but obviously quite a few pay attention to his *stuff*.
David Benson, oh my, your ad hominem attack is not worthy of you. If and when you actually listen to his argument, and you want to discuss substance, wake me up.
Kansas Elder: It ain’t ad hominem. I disagree with his basic approach of biblical inerrancy.
So forget it.
David Benson, the video I posted has nothing to do with that. If you feel like responding again, watch the video first. Otherwise everything you say is irrelevant.
Unfortunately even the Supreme Court disagrees with you. Judges can and do limit speech when it comes to control of their proceedings. That includes actions in and out of their courtroom. Free speech is not absolute. The only reason this issue is being debated is because Trump believes he is above the law and treats these court proceedings as inconveniences and hindrances despite the fact that he still has to be held accountable to the law. The evidence and witness testimony against him must be adjudicated without the criminal defendant intentionally poisoning the proceedings with constant inflammatory rhetoric that is intended to make it impossible to conduct the court’s proceedings in an equitable manner. As one of the judges has said before, Trump is not free to say whatever he wants. He’s a criminal defendant under the jurisdiction of the state free on bond on condition of his release agreement.
Turley’s advice ignores Supreme Court precedent and the law. Criminal defendants out on bail are restricted on their rights until they are acquitted of the charges. That is the law.
SHALL NOT BE ABRIDGED
Unfortunately for you, being a “judge” is not required, all Americans can read the clear meaning and intent in the words of the English language comprising the Constitution.
Throw those ——- robes away and end the charade. The judicial branch is not sacrosanct, above the law, omnipotent, or above general criticism or legal refutation.
Speaking of absolutes, I absolutely do not believe you just said that. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the Supreme Court is absolutely corrupt. Its Justices, dissenting from the dominion of the Constitution, which they swore an oath to support, must be impeached and convicted with extreme prejudice.
The Constitution holds dominion; judges and Justices do not hold dominion. America is not a juristocracy or under the dominion of a “dictatorship of the judiciary.”
Judges and justices have no constitutional power to amend the Constitution. The sole amendment process is clearly prescribed in the Constitution.
In the United States of America, comrade, speech shall not be abridged.
From there, the judicial branch may seek a workaround or constitutional amendment.
You must be detained in one of Queen Hillary’s re-education camps; no, for you, it would simply be an education camp.
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1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,…
give an example? Has anyone in RECORD history been Persecuted for paying back a LOAN? Conveniently, Letitia James should consider investigating herself. In 2017 she secured a mortgage on a property she owned for $625,000. That year the assessed value on that home was only $94,000 and the market value was only $546,000.
The notion that Trump could say anything that would affect the proceedings is utterly insane, but even if it were true he would have to be allowed to say whatever he wants because everyone else gets to. What is wrong with you?
“but even if it were true he would have to be allowed to say whatever he wants because everyone else gets to. What is wrong with you?”
Pay attention, Donald J. Trump is a criminal defendant out on bail. Everyone else…is not. As a criminal defendant out on bail the judge presiding over his case CAN put limits on his rights. Every criminal defendant has their rights limited until they are acquitted or have their charges dismissed. Every Trump supporter seems to keep forgetting that trump is an indicted criminal defendant.
“judge presiding over his case CAN put limits on his rights. “
Yes, and the judge can be wrong, and doing so because of prejudice and ideology.
Trump has a right to freedom of speech and, as a candidate, a right to present his side. You don’t like that ATS. We saw that you didn’t like dissent during the Covid crisis either, and we saw how you latched onto the Russia hoax when none existed.
What does that tell us? What you say and the truth are far apart.
He’s a criminal defendant under the jurisdiction of the state free on bond on condition of his release agreement.
So says you.
The Constitutions says Trump is an innocent man, with all of his enumerated rights fully intact.
Nice to know that you’re against pretrial imprisonment of anyone, because they’re all innocent men, with all of their enumerated rights fully intact.
OT, the actual cost to fuel an electric vehicle is over $17/gallon, when things like taxpayer subsidies are figured in. Not to mention the huge cost to the earth to manufacture EV batteries and dispose of them at the end of their lifecycle.
“It’s the [collectivism], stupid!”
– James Carville
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“Say goodbye to EVs” – that paraphrase from the new Toyota CEO.
It’s not the cars, it’s the collectivism.
The Enviro-Wacko “Green War” is a phantom psy-op, brainwashing, and communist indoctrination; it’s not real, it’s advocacy and a promotion for collectivism, aka communism.
The climate has changed from cold to warm and back again for going-on 14 billion years.
The earth and its climate have certainly changed; the earth wasn’t even here 14 billion years ago when the climate started from scratch.
Enviro-Wackos are frauds and liars as proven at East Anglia.
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Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation
Our hopelessly compromised scientific establishment cannot be allowed to get away with the Climategate whitewash, says Christopher Booker. Who’s to blame for Climategate?
A week after my colleague James Delingpole , on his Telegraph blog, coined the term “Climategate” to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, Google was showing that the word now appears across the internet more than nine million times. But in all these acres of electronic coverage, one hugely relevant point about these thousands of documents has largely been missed. The reason why even the Guardian’s George Monbiot has expressed total shock and dismay at the picture revealed by the documents is that their authors are not just any old bunch of academics. Their importance cannot be overestimated, What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Philip Jones, the CRU’s director, is in charge of the two key sets of data used by the IPCC to draw up its reports. Through its link to the Hadley Centre, part of the UK Met Office, which selects most of the IPCC’s key scientific contributors, his global temperature record is the most important of the four sets of temperature data on which the IPCC and governments rely – not least for their predictions that the world will warm to catastrophic levels unless trillions of dollars are spent to avert it. Dr Jones is also a key part of the closely knit group of American and British scientists responsible for promoting that picture of world temperatures conveyed by Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” graph which 10 years ago turned climate history on its head by showing that, after 1,000 years of decline, global temperatures have recently shot up to their highest level in recorded history. Given star billing by the IPCC, not least for the way it appeared to eliminate the long-accepted Mediaeval Warm Period when temperatures were higher they are today, the graph became the central icon of the entire man-made global warming movement. Since 2003, however, when the statistical methods used to create the “hockey stick” were first exposed as fundamentally flawed by an expert Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre , an increasingly heated battle has been raging between Mann’s supporters, calling themselves “the Hockey Team”, and McIntyre and his own allies, as they have ever more devastatingly called into question the entire statistical basis on which the IPCC and CRU construct their case. The senders and recipients of the leaked CRU emails constitute a cast list of the IPCC’s scientific elite, including not just the “Hockey Team”, such as Dr Mann himself, Dr Jones and his CRU colleague Keith Briffa, but Ben Santer, responsible for a highly controversial rewriting of key passages in the IPCC’s 1995 report; Kevin Trenberth, who similarly controversially pushed the IPCC into scaremongering over hurricane activity; and Gavin Schmidt, right-hand man to Al Gore’s ally Dr James Hansen, whose own GISS record of surface temperature data is second in importance only to that of the CRU itself. There are three threads in particular in the leaked documents which have sent a shock wave through informed observers across the world. Perhaps the most obvious, as lucidly put together by Willis Eschenbach (see McIntyre’s blog Climate Audit and Anthony Watt’s blog Watts Up With That ), is the highly disturbing series of emails which show how Dr Jones and his colleagues have for years been discussing the devious tactics whereby they could avoid releasing their data to outsiders under freedom of information laws. They have come up with every possible excuse for concealing the background data on which their findings and temperature records were based. This in itself has become a major scandal, not least Dr Jones’s refusal to release the basic data from which the CRU derives its hugely influential temperature record, which culminated last summer in his startling claim that much of the data from all over the world had simply got “lost”. Most incriminating of all are the emails in which scientists are advised to delete large chunks of data, which, when this is done after receipt of a freedom of information request, is a criminal offence.
– The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
That article is an absurdity. There is no cost “to the earth” of mining minerals of manufacturing batteries. (EV Batteries are almost totally recyclable, with Lithium capable of being used again and again in new batteries). All of the metals are recyclable. And even the plastics are salvaged.
The claims are absurd and without any reasonable foundation at all.
$17 per gallon
That’s the EV equivalency.
That’s the fact. That’s the truth. That’s the message.
You don’t say how many miles per gallon.
It makes no sense to talk about a cost in dollars per gallon when the “fuel” is not measured in volume. Why don’t you tell us the cost per mile?
Ugh, why are people so dense. Of course electricity does not come in gallons. The point is that the cost to everyone, taxpayer included, is the equivalent of if the driver were paying $17/gallon. The drivers don’t pay that because they rely on the taxpayer to pay there rest, so they can virtue signal.
Where is that cost to taxpayers generated? It must be a recurrent cost, like gas, for your analogy to work. For example, are you saying that taxpayers are subsidizing the cost of the electricity to that great an extent?