Donald Trump tried to convince a state judge to drop his Georgia election interference case on Thursday, summoning a tortured relationship between falsehoods and truths to make his case.
Trump’s lawyers argued that lies aren’t just protected by the First Amendment; lies are sometimes essential, his lawyers said, at getting to the truth.
The morning’s court hearing could prove a pivotal step as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis works her criminal case against the former president to trial. Judge Scott McAfee, who recently delivered a blow to the DA’s office by probing her romantic relationship with a prosecutor she supervised, is now considering whether Trump’s persistent lies about 2020 election fraud are constitutionally protected under the First Amendment.