A Georgia judge rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss the election interference case against him on First Amendment grounds on Thursday.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in the ruling that the August 2023 indictment alleges Trump and 14 others made statements that were linked to supposed criminality, which is not protected under the US Constitution.

“Even core political speech addressing matters of public concern is not impenetrable from prosecution if allegedly used to further criminal activity,” McAfee wrote.

Lawful activity involving protected speech can also be used to support a charge under the state’s anti-racketeering law, which was invoked in this case, the judge added.

Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow argued in court last week that the former president acted out of a “legitimate concern about the validity of the election” when he spewed claims of voter fraud in Georgia.

“What do we have here? We have election speech, which is ‘protected’ from government restriction,” Sadow insisted at the time.

McAfee, however, found that he had to interpret the language of the indictment in a way that favored the prosecution.

The charges, he explained, do not support the contention that Trump and his co-defendants are being prosecuted simply for making false statements, but that they knowingly acted in a way that harmed the government.

Trump and his remaining co-defendants “respectfully disagree with Judge McAfee’s order and will continue to evaluate their options regarding the First Amendment challenges,” Sadow said in an email after the ruling was issued.

The judge also left room for the defense to raise more challenges later on, Sadow noted.

Trump and 18 others were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in August 2023, after an investigation suggested that the former president and his allies participated in a wide-ranging scheme to upend his narrow loss to former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Last week’s hearing on the First Amendment issue was the first proceeding in the case since embattled Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ affair scandal forced a detour earlier this year.

Before Sadow presented his argument, two of Trump’s other co-defendants had already unsuccessfully tried to invoke the First Amendment in their own cases.

McAfee determined at that time it was too soon to make a ruling to toss out charges on those grounds and said he’d need to hear trial evidence first.

There is no trial date set in the Georgia case, which is just one of four criminal cases pending against Trump as he gears up for the November presidential election.

Trump has denied the allegations against him in the Peach State, and has called all four criminal cases against him a “witch hunt” aimed at derailing his re-election.

With Post wires