▲ | vkou 7 hours ago | |
The speech isn't why he would go to prison in a just world (that would be Georgia, the fake electors, and the toilet paper documents), and the impeachment that was a consequence of the speech is always a purely political trial. Someone can be impeached for any reason and no reason whatsoever, that is unfortunately how the system is designed. Two kinds of justice, with a few batshit SCOTUS rulings that make a criminal president unprosecutable as long as 34 senators are willing to go to bat for him. It's not his speech that gave him trouble with the DOJ (before he dismissed all charges against himself), it's all the other parts of his conspiracy to steal the election. Notice how none of the talking heads on TV were in legal trouble over their speech on the matter. Every one of the cases against him had a bit more to it than 'well he said some bad words', the same way that a conman doesn't go to prison just for saying some bad words, or the same way that a war criminal gets a noose, despite simply saying words - giving orders. | ||
▲ | themaninthedark 4 hours ago | parent [-] | |
Wrong. Yesterday the House January 6 Committee unanimously voted to recommend that former President Donald Trump be criminally prosecuted, for charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing an act of Congress, and, the most serious, insurrection. A congressional criminal referral of a former president is unprecedented, and if Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice decide to prosecute Trump, they will have to address a formidable defense: that Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, no matter how irresponsible or how full of lies about a “stolen” 2020 election, was, after all, a political speech and thus protected by the First Amendment. Prominent legal scholars—and one lower-court judge—have rejected that argument, countering that Trump’s speech, in which he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” was sufficiently inflammatory to permit criminal prosecution. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/january-6-... When Congress' January 6 select committee asked the Justice Department to prosecute Trump in connection to the Capitol riot >https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-january-6-criminal-ind... Here is some other ink that has been spilled on the topic as well: >Trump impeached for 'inciting' US Capitol riot https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55656385 >Trump ‘lit that fire’ of Capitol insurrection, Jan 6 Committee report says https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-lit-that-fire-of... >Trump incites mob in violent end to presidency | CNN Politics https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/donald-trump-capitol... So I will ask again, Do you condemn all those who called for Trumps prosecution for his Jan 6th speech? I still call the charges and prosecution of Mahmoud Khalil as a first amendment violation, why will you not join me? Or, do you believe that Trump incited the Jan. 6th riots? If so then the same fact pattern holds for Mahmoud Khalil. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/04/30/p... |