Are there legal consequences for politicians who lie even after they’ve been caught lying?

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday on federal charges for taking illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign nationals in exchange for favors that included helping Turkish officials bypass a fire safety inspection for a new diplomatic tower in the city.

These contributions and bribes included lavish overseas trips.

On Thursday morning, Adams said he won’t resign, causing KIRO Newsradio host Dave Ross to question whether or not there are any legal consequences for politicians who continue to lie even after they’ve been caught lying.

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Short answer, according to former Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, is no, although it has been tried.

“Washington State and the U.S. Congress tried when they passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2005, which criminalized lying about receiving military honors,” McKenna said on “Seattle’s Morning News.” “Those laws didn’t stick. The Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act in 2012, finding that it violated the First Amendment, which essentially means that the First Amendment protects the right of politicians to engage in false political speech.”

One lawyer is bringing a criminal case against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on behalf of spreading false rumors that Haitians immigrants are eating dogs and cats.

“People are wondering why there are no consequences for that, either to them or to the platforms that amplify this lie,” Ross said to McKenna.

“It comes back to the First Amendment. I mean, it would be hard to find someone liable for repeating a rumor that someone else started unless you repeat it knowing that it’s false and with actual malice,” McKenna responded. “In other words, you might have a defamation claim if an individual was defamed. But notice that Vance and Trump aren’t naming any individual immigrants who allegedly ate their neighbor’s pets.”

McKenna described one of Trump’s M.O.s as taking a statement and making the claim even more vague.

“He’ll say something like, ‘Well, I heard that’ or ‘You may have heard that’ or ‘It’s been said,’ and that’s really hard to curtail through any kind of legal action,” McKenna added.

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The difference between this and actual defamation is the person in question has to know the statement is false before propagating it.

“The fact that Trump and Vance are repeating disproven rumors and stories doesn’t make them criminally liable,” McKenna said. “If someone acts on those rumors by calling in a bomb threat or phoning in a physical threat against an individual, those people are liable, but spreading rumors is not a criminal offense.”

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.