The Fani Willis fan club

In America’s latest iteration of “Law vs. Ridicule,” Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis put forward the following: most consequential prosecution in US history. Georgia prosecutors 41 counts Weaving the tiny thread between free political speech and fraud, Trump’s lies are sewn into a cover for criminal enterprises that go beyond constitutional protections.

The First Amendment protects lying politicians, but Georgia law does not

Trump’s incessant drumming about a stolen 2020 election is off-putting to fact-over-fiction voters and difficult to analyze legally. Under the First Amendment, politicians have the right to lie to the American public with impunity. Trump can claim that he is Jesus, that the earth is flat and that a chlorine enema can cure cancer; The courts can do little. Since 1943The The Supreme Court has protected political speech – itself demonstrably false and ridiculous political speech – as the core of the First Amendment.

“If there is a fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or low, can dictate what should be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or any other matter of opinion…”

In deference to this reality, Jack Smith is filing a federal indictment confirmed in advance this trump “Like every American, he had the right to speak publicly about the election, even falsely claiming that there was voter fraud during the election that determined the outcome and that he won.”

Willis wasn’t that limited. She relied on it Georgia Code Section 16-10-20making it a crime to lie to him Any state, city or local official in georgia re all matters falling within their area of ​​responsibility. That means that while Trump got away with lying to his MAGA supporters for years, he broke the law when he lied to state and federal officials to change the outcome of Georgia’s 2020 election.

“It’s hard to acknowledge any of this when it’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.”

The In the Georgia indictment are cited 162 separate acts by Trump and his co-conspirators, including false testimony, impersonating a public official and forgery, are being woven into criminal racketeering charges under the Georgia RICO statutewhich is wider than the Federal RICO Act. That is what is claimed Trump has conspired to convince Georgia election officials that fraud had taken place despite a lack of credible evidence and constant court rulings to the contrary. It describes Trump’s recorded call asking Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, to “find” nearly 12,000 nonexistent votes and vaguely threatening Raffensperger if he didn’t.

Trump’s “overt acts of furthering conspiracy” to overturn the Georgia presidential election began on November 4, 2020, when Trump delivered a nationally televised speech in which he falsely announced victory. That’s fast metastasized into various iterations, including a pressure campaign on state and local officials to break their oath of office. This included sending false votes and forged ballot papers to state and federal officials; They accuse junior election officials in Georgia of stuffing ballots; and attempting to intimidate a poll worker into falsely confessing to campaign crimes she did not commit.

I’m trying to explain how Trump’s stolen election process resulted in massive losses (61 casescounted last), commented a Trump adviser“It’s hard to acknowledge any of this when it’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The sweet poetry of watching a woman defeat a misogynist

Trump bragging about it in 2005 Attacks on women’s genitals and then dismissed his remarks as a locker room chat, was found guilty by one in 2023 jury from his colleagues. Except for his hateful fits He likes to talk to politicians and professionals brag that he personally “Roe v. killed Wade”. He campaigned to abolish the constitutional right to abortion and promised to appoint pro-life judges. Trump Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh have pushed a political court further to the right, hurting women more than any other demographic in the process.

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With the red states now free to force pregnancy and childbirth on half the population, women have lost control of their own bodies, are unable to plan their own families or careers, and are reduced to second-class status . So how gratifying it is to see Trump overthrown by a woman when there is no federal pardon for state crimes.

Republicans have abandoned the rule of law, preferring political violence and authoritarianism to losing power. It is all the more gratifying to see Willis putting her in her place. Excuse me for passing out, but Fani Willis is no pushover. she has cracked down on violent gangs and is now Charges against rapper Young Thug under the same RICO statute that traps Trump.

Willis leans forward conservative on criminal justice and her campaign for the position of prosecutor was supported by the police union. She sought the death penalty for a man who murdered four women in a shooting at Asian spas in Atlanta. It also prosecuted public school teachers in a high-profile exam cheating scandal, a risky political move. When Willis was criticized for the case told her critics to “put it in my obituary”.

I think Fani’s obituary writes itself: Fani T. Willis, the Georgia woman who toppled a criminal President.