Trump's attorney argues Georgia election case should be dismissed. Here's why it might not work

Now to Georgia, w

here

Donald Trump's lawyers have just asked a judge to dismiss the electoral subversion

case

against him. It was the first hearing since that same judge rejected his efforts to disqualify prosecutor Fani Willis from the

case

. She was noticeably absent today. CNN's Caitlin Polanco stands outside the Fulton County Courthouse. Caitlin, what happened Dana, no ruling, no trial date, no Donald Trump or Fanny Willis physically in the courtroom today. But these hearings, this hearing are important in this case because in this hearing is w

here

defendants like Donald Trump today, their team can argue before the judge why they believe the law is not correct, the facts are not correct or this case needs to be fired.

The judge heard his argument because what is at issue here is the First Amendment. They've been arguing quite forcefully that what's being charged here in this case in Fulton County, Georgia, extortion and conspiracy against Donald Trump, is simply protected speech. These are things the Constitution

should

have allowed him to say. His tweets, his speech at Ellipse, all of that does not constitute a crime under the law. Here's a little more from Donald Trump's lawyer. She has not appeared in court today about what President Trump said in terms of speech or expressed through his speech or conduct, which is still free speech because it is false in the eyes of the state.

She has lost all First Amendment protections, quite the opposite. If anything, given the circumstances, she needs more protection. But the prosecutor, Donald Wakefield, was also able to argue before the judge that this case is right, that the law is correct here as the district

attorney

's office has interpreted it. and that Donald Trump was making false statements that were false statements that were lies after the 2020

election

. And that is the core of the criminal activity, the criminal conspiracy that Trump allegedly leads. Now, the judge didn't say what he's actually going to do here. He has heard challenges like this before this case from other defendants, he said they were unsuccessful and moved the case to trial.

That's a strong possibility here because the other thing prosecutors were arguing was to let the law stand and let the question of intent fall to a jury. Dana, Kaitlán, thank you very much for that report. Now I want to talk to this CNN panel made up of stars Kristen Holmes, Paula Reid and Sara Murray. Nice to see you all. Welcome back. Of maternity leave. We'll talk about the essay in a second, but I just realized that you three are moms and two babies. That's true. That's great. Well. And we all support each other consecutively in our regularly scheduled programming.

Sarah, what was your takeaway from what we saw this morning? Well, look, I think the first thing is just the optics. This is the first time we've seen the case come back to what the defendants allegedly did here. And you know, what's actually on trial, unlike Fanny Willis's personal life, was probably a cognitive decision she made not to appear in person in the courtroom to allow her team, minus Nathan Wade, to Of course, I'm no longer with them, more or less. with this And, you know, look, I think the Trump team made a valiant effort. I can talk more about this than trying to say why everything Donald Trump did is protected by the First Amendment and why we don't need to do something annoying like a trial.

We can dismiss this accusation right now. But I think one of the points that prosecutors made is that a tweet itself doesn't have to be a crime. A statement itself does not have to be a crime based on the way organized crime law

work

s in Georgia. These things must be acts that further this broader conspiracy that Trump and his allies were involved in to try to overturn the 2020

election

when you get there. Paul, I just want our viewers to hear some of that argument from the DA's senior district chief. Donald Wakeford, it is not only that he lied over and over again, as the defendant's

attorney

points out when listing all the cases in the indictment, but that each of them was used as part of a criminal activity with criminal intent.

Yes. So the Trump team is arguing, look, this was a group of politicians talking about a presidential election. That is the political discourse. The government, they say, wait a second, there are limits to the First Amendment and the protections afforded to political speech. On the one hand, this was false. Falsehood is not a protected point of view. Trump's lawyers then say no, the government can't decide what is true and what is false. Look, good effort on the part of the Trump team, but this is not something that is going to succeed. But look, Trump's lawyers have an obligation to bring all actions on behalf of their client.

And I'm told that in addition to DeLay's perpetual strategy, they're playing a long game here. They must file these motions to preserve them for an appeal. So, hypothetically, if this goes to trial, if there is a conviction, their hope is that there will be enough problems, enough mistakes over the life of this case that they can eventually kill this kind of death with a thousand cuts, eventually on appeal. And I will add to that that this is not one of those cases where those arguments that they thought were going to change the trajectory of the case.

When you talk to them, we will certainly be watching you, but Donald Trump is not there. We see it in court all the time when he wants to be there, if he wants to be in a hearing, they don't necessarily hang their hat on this argument. But as Paul said and as one of his senior advisors told me, look, Donald Trump is paying these lawyers a lot of money. They are paid to exhaust every possible avenue and to really fight for that end, which is to delay this trial as long as possible and delay the November elections.

And right now they believe, particularly after what we saw, the fake will, that they will likely be able to delay this after the election. Soon. Finally, Willis, as I mentioned, and Caitlin did too. She was not in court today. This was the first hearing since that same judge said he can remain on the case. She spoke Saturday about what happened. Let's listen. I'm not ashamed of anything I've done. You know, I guess my biggest crime is having a relationship with a man. I don't feel like they've held us back at all. I think efforts are being made to stop this train, but the train is coming.

You know, I think Fanny Lewis definitely has a defiant streak, somewhat similar to Donald Trump in many ways. And I think her office really views this as a consensual relationship between two adults that was unfairly exaggerated. But the reality is that this is something that still hangs over the case. You know, the case continues. We saw it today. The focus was on the criminal case at hand and the defendants. But the judge allowed Trump's team to continue appealing. That's something that looms over her. You know what the judge said in her ruling, which was not very flattering to either Fani Willis or Nathan Wade, still hangs in the court of public opinion.

It still looms over a potential jury. And then, you know, we'll see what happens. But I think the best thing for them was that this was an audience that wasn't focused on the funny Willis and her current personal life. Yes. I mean, the idea that my only crime was being right. By having this relationship, no one will accuse you of a crime, but the judge has criticized your judgment, your professionalism, and has questioned your honesty. Not a good sign when you're heading into a trial like this. But what I will tell you is that at least the case is moving forward.

The judge is hearing motions. He said he will continue to press for a trial. Final thought? I think, you know, they've said it, the idea is that, yeah, it's always funny to say about the case, yeah, she's defiant. But when we look at this in the court of public opinion, this is a scathing ruling that Donald Trump is planning to use. Thank you all. I appreciate it.