The following is an excerpt from Missouri Independent.
Twenty-four Republican state attorneys general, including Missouri’s, have interceded in the classified-documents prosecution of Donald Trump, opposing special counsel Jack Smith’s request that the trial judge bar Trump from making hostile statements against federal law enforcement.
In a 27-page amicus brief filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the states complain that Smith’s motion to amend the former president’s bail conditions amounts to interference in the presidential election.
“The free-speech right is at its strongest when it protects political speech,” the brief says.
“Yet special prosecutor Jack Smith, on behalf of the United States, asks this court to curtail that right by ordering a prior restraint on President Trump’s constitutionally protected speech. Such an order is presumptively unconstitutional,” the document continues.
Republican AGs in Iowa, 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 have joined Moody’s brief.
“If granted, this request would prevent the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States from speaking out against the prosecution and the criminal trial process that seek to take away his liberty,” the brief reads.
“That prosecution, of course, is led by a department that President Trump’s political opponent controls,” it adds, referring to Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Once again, we are witnessing a prosecutor seek to keep the presumptive Republican nominee for president from speaking in the midst of an election. The First Amendment, at its core, is designed to protect political speech, and I along with my colleagues will not stand idly by and watch the Biden administration trample the free speech of a Florida citizen,” Moody said in a written statement.
Link to full article here.
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The only problem here is that the Brief in question wasn’t filed — it was attached to a Motion requesting LEAVE to file it, and the next day — June 17 — the Motion for leave to file this amicus brief was DENIED:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67490070/united-states-v-trump/?page=4
Jun 17, 2024 — PAPERLESS ORDER denying 623 Motion for Leave to File Brief as Amicus Curiae in Opposition to Special Counsel’s Motion to Modify Conditions of Release 592 . Signed by Judge Aileen M. Cannon on 6/17/2024. (jf01) (Entered: 06/17/2024)