June 20, 2024 |
Photo – Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill – Courtesy State of Wyoming
Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill is one of 24 AGs around the nation who have filed a motion opposing special counsel Jack Smith’s gag order against former President Donald Trump in a classified records case filed in Florida.
The 24 state attorneys, in a court petition filed Monday, contest that Trump’s “colorful rhetoric” is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Prior to being appointed to the position of Special Counsel by the Biden Administration, Smith served as chief prosecutor of war crimes during the Kosovo War in the Hague where the laws – and the presumption of innocence – are different than in the United States.
The Special Prosecutor had argued that the former president’s allegations about FBI agents who carried out a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August of 2022 would incite threats or harassment against the law enforcement officials.
A previous gag order request from the special counsel was rejected by the court on procedural grounds. Smith’s team filed the second request a few days later.
Trump’s defense team filed a motion, arguing the second gag request should also be dismissed on the grounds that it would violate Trump’s constitutional rights.
In their court filing, the states argue that the second motion from the Smith team should also be denied because U.S citizens “have an interest in hearing from major political candidates in the upcoming presidential election.”
The attorneys note in their court filing that “suppressing views and viewpoints from reaching the public” in an election violates First Amendment principles. The legal brief also notes that “gagging a candidate means that constituents cannot hear how the candidate will reply to a given issue of concern—a concern like the weaponization of the prosecutorial processes against political opponents.”
The brief notes that “All Americans are entitled to have their free speech rights respected.”
The two dozen state attorneys general request that the Court deny the special prosecutor’s request to restrict Trump’s First Amendment rights.
The AG’s note that former President Trump has never threatened the FBI agents involved in the search, and that his colorful rhetoric is a way “to communicate his intent to fight hard for Americans” in a direct way.
Trump faces 40 counts of illegally retaining classified documents after he left the White House in early 2021 and for allegedly obstructing FBI attempts to retrieve them.
Current President Biden also kept documents from his time as Vice President in open boxes in his unsecured garage. No charges were ever filed against Biden, who as vice president was not granted the same privileges as former President Trump.
The complaint reads, “The States of Iowa, Florida, 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 stand four-square behind the protections of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has scheduled a June 24 court hearing regarding the prosecutor’s gag order request.
