Donald Trump sounds scared, and his campaign’s response to Jack Smith alerting the court to the former president’s online threat in violation of the conditions of his release reeks of fear.
It only took a few hours for federal prosecutors to alert the court to the former president’s threat, generally directed seemingly at everyone associated with his criminal case.
The Trump campaign responded to federal prosecutors in a brief statement:
“The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech, and was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch brothers and the Club for No Growth.”
It is simple to prove that Trump was not talking about Kochs, China, or special interest groups because every post on his account falls into one of two categories. Trump is either posting polls and his hyping his upcoming speeches or posting about the criminal charges that he is facing. There is no mention of any of the topics the campaign suggested around his threat. Trump was posting about his criminal charges before he posted his threat.
The former president is terrified. He has finally come up against accountability.
Threats are not protected speech under the First Amendment. Threatening violence or retribution is a crime. The posts around Trump’s threat make it clear what he was talking about.
Trump is terrified, and instead of doubling down, his campaign team offered a scrambled response to keep their candidate out of jail.
