Special Counsel Jack Smith’s most recent indictment of Donald Trump allows me to discuss two of my favorite topics: the development of novel criminal defense theories and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Let’s dive in.
On August 1, a federal grand jury in Washington D.C. charged the former president with four crimes related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election by seeking to reverse election results in several states and obstructing Congress’ vote certification process on January 6, 2021.
The introduction to the charging document provides a concise synopsis of the Special Counsel’s case:
Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had won.
These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were wrong. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway—to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.
Bottom line: Mr. Trump lied and engaged in a widespread criminal conspiracy to disenfranchise the American people — including me and you, dear readers.
Here’s where the novel criminal...
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