Just because he wrote it on twitter doesn’t mean it can’t be a crime:
What stands out in the indictment is how it uses Trump’s tweets against him – as Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis alleges Trump and his co-defendants engaged in a criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 election results as they pressured state and federal officials.
“Wow! Blockbuster testimony taking place right now in Georgia. Ballot stuffing by Dems when Republicans were forced to leave the large counting room. Plenty more coming, but this alone leads to an easy win of the State!” Trump tweeted on Dec. 3, 2020.
“People in Georgia got caught cold bringing in massive numbers of ballots and putting them in ‘voting’ machines. Great job @BrianKempGA!” – Dec. 3, 2020.
“I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” – Jan. 3, 2021.
“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” – Jan. 5, 2021.
“States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is time for extreme courage!” – Jan. 6, 2021.
These tweets were all in plain sight for everyone to see, which might have blunted their impact at the time the former president was firing off his constant missives.
But they are now a big part of the latest indictment against Trump.
Can a tweet be a crime?
In remarks late last night, Willis said the indictment included “overt acts” – actions that wouldn’t be a crime on their own but might prove a larger pattern, NBC’s Ginger Gibson writes.
“Many occurred in Georgia and some occurred in other jurisdictions and are included because the grand jury believes they were part of the illegal effort to overturn the result of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election,” Willis said.
Trump is stupid and shameless so he often lied or gave unlawful orders on twitter or some other public forum. He believed that he was totally protected by the first amendment or executive privilege. Those rights are not absolute and if he gave it half a thought (or had half a brain) he would have realized that. Executive privilege (or Article II) does not allow a president to do anything he wants. And when speech is in furtherance of a crime like fraud it’s not protected.
You’d think a snake oil fraudster like Trump would have been aware of that. Of course he’s gotten away with it his whole life so I suppose he assumed he always would.