Crime

Man Responsible For Chilling Free Speech Argues Stormy Daniels Is Chilling Trump's Free Speech

Trump's latest argument in the Stormy Daniels case is laughable... and terrifying.

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Stormy Daniels

The biggest and most successful attack on the First Amendment in my lifetime was orchestrated by Charles Harder. He’s the guy who represented Hulk Hogan in his successful attempt to take down an entire independent media organization. I have nightmares about Charles Harder. He’s weaponized “dislike” into something that can break independent news through the sheer force of ever rising insurance premiums.

If you ask Trumpsters, they’ll say biggest threat to the First Amendment is people losing endorsements after they say the N-word. But if you ask many progressives, they’ll tell you that fake news bots are a “threat” to media. Both are wrong. The biggest threat to free speech is the ability of the rich to shut down actual journalism they don’t like. They can do it through lawsuits. They can do it by buying up media organizations and then gutting them from the inside. They can do it by buying up smaller organizations and then forcing them to all repeat the same, partisan rhetoric. They can do it by letting internet service providers throttle news that doesn’t pay their fees.

The rich and powerful can bend the First Amendment right over their knees and spank it into submission if we let them. And people like Charles Harder are here to help them do that.

So, it should come as no surprise that Harder is now representing Donald Trump in his defense of the Stormy Daniels defamation suit. And it should come as no surprise that Harder’s argument is that the free speech rights of the (formerly) most powerful person in the Western world (congratulations on your promotion, Angela Merkel) are being “chilled” by a single mother who makes straight-to-DVD movies. From NBC:

Trump attorney Charles Harder asked a federal judge late Monday to toss the defamation suit, arguing that the president’s tweet is an opinion protected by the First Amendment, and said the Daniels suit “is designed to chill the President’s free speech rights on matters of public concern.”

“Politicians, in the course of public debate, are entitled to enter the debate and express their beliefs, including their disbeliefs, of the claims of their adversaries. Plaintiff is a vocal adversary of the President; she and her lawyer, Mr. Avenatti, acting on her behalf, have publicly attacked the President in more than 140 television news appearances in the past five months,” says the motion.

I literally cannot write what I think about Charles Harder, and this argument, because I am afraid of Charles Harder. MY FREE SPEECH IS BEING CHILLED RIGHT NOW IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES! I’M SO FROZEN THEY SHOULD CHANGE MY BYLINE TO “ELSA.”

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[Now imagine I was white]

On the legal front, Harder’s arguments don’t necessarily help his client. Remember this a defamation suit launched by Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avennatti. The sole purpose of this lawsuit is to get Donald Trump into a deposition chair. If Harder can’t get the lawsuit tossed, then his client has already lost.

Of the things that can get a defamation suit tossed before discovery: “plaintiffs go on television a lot,” isn’t really one of them. If Trump and Harder could argue that, you know, the things Trump says about Daniels are true, that would be one thing. But this “as against public policy” kind of argument isn’t a great way to short-circuit a lawsuit before discovery.

The courts have been… resistant to allowing Trump to change the rules of legal engagement simply because he is Donald Trump. If that holds, Trump will have to handle this defamation suit, meritless though it may be, just like Charles Harder wants media companies to: pay to settle or risk a jury.

It wouldn’t necessarily be justice, but it would be a heavy dose of Karma.

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Earlier:

Gawker Settles With Hulk Hogan, And The First Amendment Is Worse For It

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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