From https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2021/02/housemanagersreply_020821.pdf
First Amendment: President Trump’s incitement of insurrection was itself a frontal assault on the First Amendment. As a matter of law and logic — not to mention simple common sense — his attempted reliance on free speech principles is utterly baseless. See Trial Memo at 45 - 48.
The Answer claims that the Article of Impeachment “misconstrues protected speech.” Answer at 10. For instance, it contends that there is “insufficient evidence” to decide whether any of 3 President Trump’s statements at the January 6 rally were “accurate or not.” Id. at 4. It further asserts that one of President Trump’s statements — “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore” — was “clearly about the need for fight for election security in general.” Id. at 6. Finally, it declares that President Trump never “threatened Secretary Raffensperger.” Id. at 8.
To call these responses implausible would be an act of charity. President Trump’s repeated claims about a “rigged” and “stolen” election were false, no matter how many contortions his lawyers undertake to avoid saying so. When President Trump demanded that the armed, angry crowd at his Save America Rally “fight like hell” or “you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he wasn’t urging them to form political action committees about “election security in general.” And when the President of the United States demanded that Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger “find” enough votes to overturn the election — or else face “a big risk to you” and “a criminal offense” — that was obviously a threat, one which reveals his state of mind (and his desperation to try to retain power by any means necessary). The House looks forward to proving each of these points at trial.
Also, to be clear, this is not a case about “protected speech.” The House did not impeach President Trump because he expressed an unpopular political opinion. It impeached him because he willfully incited violent insurrection against the government. We live in a Nation governed by the rule of law, not mob violence incited by Presidents who cannot accept their own electoral defeat.
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