Trump claims his rants contained no 'threats or harassment' in latest gag order filing

Donald Trump has a First Amendment right to declare “If you go after me, I’m coming after you” on social media because there is no proof such messages constitute a “public threat,” his lawyers argue in a new filing.

This argument appears in a response to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s gag order motion filed Friday, three days before a slated hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

"The prosecution argues that President Trump has 'repeatedly called the prosecutors handling the case ‘deranged,’ ‘thugs,’ and ‘lunatics,’” the response motion states.

“But it does not identify any resulting threats or harassment or claim that the prosecutors are even remotely intimidated by such speech.”

Smith’s Tuesday motion likened Trump’s social media rants to King Henry II’s remark, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” which his team noted “resulted in Thomas à Becket’s murder.”

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Smith’s motion then cites a violent threat, which includes racial and gendered slurs, phoned into the district court’s chambers: “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you.”

Smith’s team also put strong emphasis on Trump’s all-caps Truth Social message, posted Aug. 4 soon after his arraignment in Smith’s election interference case, threatening to come after anyone who goes after him.

In response, Trump's lawyers denied the message was directed at Judge Tanya Chutkan, despite the death threat having reportedly been phoned in the day after his post.

“The prosecution’s objection to this post is a naked attempt to muzzle public criticism of itself,” Trump’s lawyers contend. “This statement made no reference to this case, and his campaign explained that it was made 'in response to … special interest groups and Super PACs.'"

The full statement, without ellipses, appears in a Huffington Post report about widespread disbelief of the explanation.

“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 quoted the campaign saying.

Finally, Trump’s lawyers double down on the First Amendment protections for free speech.

“The prosecution contends that silencing a political candidate with over 100 million followers imposes an ‘equal' injury as silencing a single speaker—an argument that would flunk first-grade math,” they write.

Smith’s motion does not quantify the number of Trump followers, but they appear to number 6.5 million on Truth Social. Trump has more on Twitter, but has only issued one Tweet since Jan. 8, 2021, of his mugshot.