AMERICA: FREE SPEECH COSTLY

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hello everybody, this is Gerald Celente, and it's Wednesday, May 6th, 2026.

[00:00:06]And we have with us again, very fortunate, lucky, privileged to have with us Judge Andrew Napolitano.

[00:00:13]As I keep saying, there's nobody that I know, maybe you do, but let us know, that knows the Constitution, the Bill of Rights better than the judge, who writes about it, talks about it, uh week after week, and his great show he has, Judging Freedom, terrific people on. Judge, thank you so much for being here, and you have an article, again, I have to tell you, you've only said this about uh a hundred times since I've known you, about how we lost our rights, and what used to be called freedom of speech.

[00:00:45]And and your article, I mean, really nails it again, uh the Comey indictment and free speech.

[00:00:52]In 200 years, plus, in 200 plus years of interpreting the free speech clause of the First Amendment, the courts have narrowed and expanded its scope. The Supreme Court employed a particularly narrow approach during much of the last century, through two World Wars, and the Red Scare of the 1950s.

[00:01:19]Well, you know, the courts gave the government a tremendous power to punish speech that uh they felt the government argued was dangerous.

[00:01:29]That was the standard during World War I, World War II, and the '40s and '50s.

[00:01:36]In the 1960s, the standard changed radically uh to the Brandenburg rule. The Brandenburg rule says all innocuous speech is absolutely protected, and all speech is innocuous when there is time for more speech to challenge it.

[00:01:55]So, if somebody says, "There's the president, let's get him, and the president is there, and the crowds descend on him, that speech is actionable. It's an incitement to criminal behavior.

[00:02:10]But, if the president is a thousand miles away, and nobody reacts to the speech, then the speech is protected.

[00:02:16]It's not actionable.

[00:02:18]So, all of this has to do with Jim Comey, uh receiving a photograph, >> [clears throat and cough] >> excuse me, receiving a photograph of seashells on a beach that said, "8647."

[00:02:34]Most people would think, "Well, I don't know what that means. Doesn't mean anything to me." The government says 47 refers to Trump, and 86 means let's kill him.

[00:02:44]Now, maybe in some demented minds, that's what it means.

[00:02:48]But, the law is if there's any non-criminal interpretation to the speech, the non-criminal interpretation trumps, no pun intended, the criminal allegation.

[00:03:01]Now, when I was in college and law school, I worked in uh restaurants and bars to pay my way through. The phrase 86 is used in restaurant jargon to mean we don't have the product anymore. I even put an example in there, and I put that example in for you.

[00:03:19]The espresso is espresso is 86th. God forbid, we don't have any more espresso.

[00:03:25]But, that's what it means. It doesn't mean kill anybody. It means it's not around anymore. So, what would it mean with respect to Trump? I want his presidency to end. When the Democrats take control of the Congress, they'll impeach him. It could mean all these things that are absolutely protected speech.

[00:03:45]But, uh the DOJ, two days after a legitimate threat on Trump's life by that crazy guy at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. presents this to a grand jury in North Carolina and they indict Comey for a threatening to kill the president of the United States.

[00:04:06]It's such an absurd indictment. All of the law is against them and we'll soon learn this when Comey's lawyers make an application to dismiss the indictment.

[00:04:16]But, it shows you the length to which the government will go to chill speech, to terrify people uh from being critical of the president of the United States.

[00:04:29]The DOJ, is that the Department of Jerkoffs? Well, it's the Department of Political Justice, that's for sure.

[00:04:38]What a joke. Again, you know, it it's very important to read your article.

[00:04:42]It's in this week's Trends Journal as well.

[00:04:44]You go, "When crafting the First Amendment with psychotic speech clause, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech."

[00:04:57]James Madison insisted that the word "the" precede the word "freedom" so as to make clear the understanding of the drafters and ratifiers of the freedom of speech existed before the government did.

[00:05:15]Why, how dare they say that? The government tells you what to do. I mean, judge, let's go back to the COVID, all right?

[00:05:24]Look what they did, all the censoring of people when they came out against what the government was doing.

[00:05:29]Look what they've done to all of these students that are afraid to go out and protest against the genocide that Israel's committing on a daily basis in Palestine. Yes. What free speech are you talking about? Yes.

[00:05:46]It's gone.

[00:05:49]>> [clears throat] >> You go on to write that um Madison's theoretical application shared by Thomas Jefferson and articulated by him in the Declaration of Independence that our rights are endowed within us by our creator is that free speech is inherent in our human nature.

[00:06:14]No, it's not.

[00:06:15]And again, it's not only in the United States. Look what's going on in the UK.

[00:06:20]How they're locking people up for coming out for protesting against Israeli genocide mass murder.

[00:06:29]This of course is global.

[00:06:31]>> in the UK they're even locking up journalists who are reporting on criminal prosecutions uh of Palestinian demonstrators because the UK government does not want the defense that is articulated at the trial to be made known to the public.

[00:06:52]So, the UK is in I hope we please Lord we don't get there, but the UK is in far far uh worse shape than we are. But, this Comey case is a step in the same direction as the UK. Look, Trump hates Comey and it some of his hatred is understandable for what Comey did, but you can't use the criminal justice system to prosecute somebody just because you hate them. The posting was stupid, but being stupid is not a felony. He has the right to have his opinions and express them however he wants whether they're a stupid or wise or not.

[00:07:31]Didn't he go after Comey before too on something else? I thought.

[00:07:34]>> Uh he did. He went after Comey claiming that he lied under oath, but the DOJ botched the presentation to the grand jury because Trump had appointed a US attorney who had no experience dealing with grand juries. And by the time they discovered the botch, the statute limitations had expired and it was too late to prosecute Comey.

[00:08:03]You know, Judge, the Iran [clears throat] war looks like it may be over because Trump just said Iran will be bombed, quote, at much higher level, end quote, if they don't agree to peace deal.

[00:08:16]This just came out. He said, "Proposals, this from CNBC, proposals to end the war are, quote, very likely in the coming days, according to sources close to negotiations.

[00:08:29]And um Trump said the war will, quote, be be at an end if Iran agrees to proposals, meaning the Straits of Hormuz, quote, will be open to all.

[00:08:44]What do you think? [clears throat] Well, you know, Trump keeps changing his mind, as always. Somebody's making a lot of money with the market manipulation.

[00:08:54]This is more your field than mine.

[00:08:57]Um the price of oil went down today because he said a deal is in the works. There's no deal in the works, according to Mohammad Marandi. There's no negotiation going on.

[00:09:07]The Americans don't trust the Israeli agents that are negotiating for the United States. They just added another one, a guy named Nick Stewart. I never heard of this fellow, but apparently he's directly from AIPAC, joining the negotiating team. See, that's really going to enhance the credibility of the American negotiators with their Iranian counterparts.

[00:09:27]Yesterday, Marco Rubio said the war is over. Pete Hegseth said the war is over.

[00:09:32]The president, this morning, as you just said, and to resume the bombing. so uh they have a very um unorthodox way of expressing American foreign policy. I'm trying to be charitable.

[00:09:44]Uh who knows what their thinking is or what uh they're going to do next, but Professor Marandi, to remind your uh viewers, born in Alexandria, Virginia, and now resident in Tehran and a professor at the University of Tehran and was a part of the negotiating team that went to Islamabad, says the Iranians expect bombing to resume any hour now. They are fully prepared for it. Their retaliation against US bases in the Gulf and against Israel will be far more ferocious than the first time around. Wow.

[00:10:24]That's [clears throat] totally opposed to what the news is saying right now.

[00:10:28]Yeah. And Larry Johnson, uh ex-military and ex-CIA on on my show on Judging Freedom, said yesterday that friends uh in I forget the country, but one of the Gulf state governments had told him that the American government told the Gulf state government expect the bombing to resume on the 7th, which is tomorrow. And I find this hard to believe unless it's going to be just 24 48 hours because Trump reiterated his intention uh to go to Beijing uh on May 14th. It's almost inconceivable to me he would leave the country while he's waging war.

[00:11:11]You know, the um again, Trump's saying that if they don't agree to a peace deal, uh they'll be bombed at a much higher level. He's said this crap how many times?

[00:11:23]How many times has he said this that if they don't make a deal, they're going to be bombed, they're going to be bombed, they're going to be bombed, they're going to be bombed? And an article just came out in the uh Washington Post.

[00:11:36]Iran has hit far more US military assets than reported. Satellite images show.

[00:11:46]Iran air strikes have damaged or destroyed, you ready?

[00:11:50]At least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at US military sites across the Middle East since the war began. Hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft, and key radar communications, air defense equipment, according to Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery.

[00:12:16]It's a very, very in-depth article here.

[00:12:19]They're showing all the stuff.

[00:12:22]They also say more than 400 troops have suffered injuries as of late April.

[00:12:29]Mhm.

[00:12:30]Well, the United States is taking a page out of the Israeli book by not revealing the nature and extent of deaths, injuries, and damage to to assets. Nobody believes for a minute Hagel's statement that the war has cost 25 billion. The people on my show say it's well north of 100 billion. Yeah.

[00:12:55]Yeah, we we we again talking about a peace deal, it will not be a peace deal as we see it because one of the demands by Iran is that Israel must withdraw from Lebanon.

[00:13:14]And they're not going to do it.

[00:13:17]We just put an article out yesterday that says they're going deeper into Israel and they're going to quote raise more into Lebanon, excuse me, Israel is, and raise more buildings. Raise more buildings, you mean destroy more buildings. Yes. Yes.

[00:13:33]So, who do you have The only way The only way that that would stop would be for president to to the the president to threaten Netanyahu. He's not going to do that because he's beholden to uh the American Zionists led by Mrs. Ellison.

[00:13:51]Who do you have coming up on Judging Freedom?

[00:13:54]Well, I just had uh Professor Marandi.

[00:13:57]Uh I have Professor Glenn Diesen from Norway. Pepe Escobar this week is in Shanghai or Beijing, I'm not sure which.

[00:14:05]And of course at 3:00, your second biggest fan, the great Phil Giraldi.

[00:14:12]You know, you're talking about um how the Zionists are running this. You ready? This is an article in this week's Trends Journal.

[00:14:25]Pro-Zionist Paul Singer's Elliott Management equates US-Israel on Iran to fight against Nazis. Oh, jeez.

[00:14:39]Well, that's uh that's Singer would expect. That's their that's their propaganda. That's their MO.

[00:14:45]And these are the people that you as you say that are behind Trump. Correct.

[00:14:50]>> And so again, we don't see any ceasefire coming.

[00:14:53]And again, they're they're doing this We we're writing only the facts. They're saying one thing to bring down the markets, and another thing is going on that's going to change things.

[00:15:03]Listen, everybody, go to Judging Freedom. The people that the judge has on there, you're not going to see or hear anybody else anywhere else.

[00:15:11]Uh Judge, thanks so much for being on, and we'll see you next week. Uh thank you, Gerald. All the best to you, my friend.