Trump heading for loss in first Georgia election hearing since Fani Willis was allowed to stay on case: Judge appears skeptical at ex-president's lawyers bid to throw out the charges

• Lawyers argued motions Thursday after Willis said ‘the train is coming’ 
• Trump lawyer said his words were ‘the zenith of protected speech’ 
• First hearing since Judge McAfee allowed Willis to remain after hearings about her personal relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade

Lawyers for Donald Trump argued in a Georgia courtroom that his false statements and tweets claiming election fraud were not part of a criminal conspiracy but were core ‘political speech’ that must be protected.

Judge Scott McAfee held his first court hearing since his bombshell decision to allow Fulton County DA Fani Willis to stay on the case so long as her former lover Nathan Wade ended his role as special prosecutor.

It put high-powered lawyers back in McAfee’s courtroom to argue whether the indictment brought by Willis’ office could withstand constitutional challenge.

Trump lawyer Steven Sadow said it couldn’t. ‘The majority of the overt acts involve false statements or tweets which are clearly political speech,’ he told McAfee, who evinced skepticism in some of his questions.

He argued that Trump’s claims of election fraud and even his efforts to contact election officials even amid a ‘fake’ electors scheme merits protection.

He called it ‘the zenith of protected speech.’

‘What do we have here? We have election speech,’ he said.

He argued that Trump’s statements weren’t as alleged in the indictment to ‘steal the election in an unlawful fashion’ but was in fact a public service as part of his office.

‘I say change that for a second to legitimate concern about the validity of the election,’ he said, calling it ‘protected speech.’

Senior DA Donald Wakeford was unpersuaded. He accused Trump’s team of ‘fundamentally rewriting the indictment’ and cited a pervious ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in he January 6 case rejecting such arguments.

Lawyers argued motions before Judge McAfee in a Georgia courtroom Thursday

He said Trump is allowed to make false statements in many circumstances. ‘What he is not allowed to do is employ his speech and his expression… as part of a criminal conspiracy.

‘He’s not being prosecuted for lying. He’s being prosecuted for lying to the government,’ he said, referencing the complex racketeering charges involving efforts to pressure state election officials and produce a slate of electors for Trump who would claim he was the election winner in 2020.

‘The statements are part of criminal conduct that is larger than just the false statement on its own,’ he said.

Willis was not in the courtroom.

The legal face-off came after Willis said her team was continuing its efforts and that the legal clash over her relationship with Wade had not derailed it.

‘The train is coming,’ she told CNN Saturday.

McAfee was hearing oral arguments after Trump and codefendant former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer filed pretrial motions.

Shafer’s team argues that he was acting legally when he signed a certificate asserting Trump won the election in the state and calling himself a ‘duly and qualified’ elector.

McAfee agreed to forge ahead with such housekeeping even as Trump and his codefendants appeal his ruling to allow Willis to stay on the case even after explosive revelations about her affair with Wade.

Defense lawyers argued there was a conflict of interest that prevented their clients from getting a fair trial.

Biden narrowly won the state by about 12,000 votes. Trump and most of his codefendants have pleaded not guilty, although four have pleaded guilty after negotiating with prosecutors.

Many of the arguments hinged on technical legal definitions on the nature of charged crimes, relating to forgery, impersonating an officer, and false documents.

Judge McAfee at one point asked Shafer lawyer Craig Gillen, ‘Let’s start with just where is the authority to kind of take a scalpel to an inducement cut out things we don’t like?’

After Trump lawyer Steven Sadow complained that the indictment states as fact that certain acts are unlawful, McAfee interjected, ‘We put legal conclusions in indictments all the time.’

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