CNN legal analyst panned for claiming 'you don't have a First Amendment right to lie'

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Trump lawyers making First Amendment case ahead of impeachment trial

FOX News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the details from Capitol Hill on 'Special Report'

A CNN legal analyst raised eyebrows Tuesday by suggesting on the air that lying is not protected by the First Amendment. 

Jennifer Rodgers was quick to dismiss the legal arguments being made by former President Donald Trump's lawyers ahead of next week's Senate impeachment trial. Those arguments include the theory that it's "unconstitutional" to impeach a former president, as well as that Trump had the right to make his remarks at the Jan. 6 rally before pro-Trump rioters stormed Capitol Hill. 

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"Yeah, those are wrong," Rodgers said during a panel discussion. "I mean, you don't have a First Amendment right to lie. You don't have a First Amendment right to put people in danger. And he did both of those things."

Critics piled on the CNN legal analyst for her not-so-factual legal analysis. 

"Umm, yes you have first amendment right to lie. What an embarrassment (and prime purveyor of lies) CNN is..." replied "Rubin Report" host Dave Rubin. 

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"If you didn't have a first amendment right to lie, everyone at CNN would be out of a job," Daily Caller's Greg Price quipped.

"But Trump was the existential threat to the constitution..." The Federalist correspondent David Marcus said. 

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Rodgers later walked back her comments amid the viral backlash.

"That was wrong - obviously people can lie," Rodgers tweeted. "I meant to say Trump has no 1st Am right to call for a crime to be committed (or to call for something dangerous). Sorry for the misstatement."