Trump has no serious first amendment defense in a court of law. Here’s why | Laurence H Tribe and Dennis Aftergut

Words that criminal defendants have written or spoken are used against them all the time. Perhaps you've heard of a confession?

If Donald Trump stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue after robbing the Chase Bank branch by passing a note to the teller saying, Your money or your life," he'd likely plead the first amendment as his defense: I was just exercising my rights to free speech!"

Of course, he'd be wrong. Words that criminal defendants have written or spoken are used against them all the time. Perhaps you've heard of a confession.

Laurence H Tribe is the Carl M Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University. Follow him on @tribelaw

Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy