Hillary Clinton called out for suggesting Americans should be arrested over disinformation: 'Quite chilling'

Author and constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley sounded the alarm on Hillary Clinton's "chilling" suggestion that Americans who share disinformation should be arrested. Turley addressed the former secretary of state's controversial remarks on free speech during "America's Newsroom," warning that the global effort to stifle free speech has reached U.S. shores. 

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JONATHAN TURLEY: I talk about her in my new book, ‘The Indispensable Right,' and how she's been one of the outstanding voices in the anti-free speech movement. Her views on free speech are quite chilling. What's interesting is that for years, the left has been trying to get people to embrace censorship, but it's hard to get a free people to give up freedom, and it's not working. And so now they're going old school with Clinton and with countries like Brazil. They're just going to straight state action prosecutions threatening people with arrest if you have opposing views. This is part of a movement that's been growing worldwide, and that wave has now reached our shores. That's why I wrote this book. 

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill, December 4, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This is also the person that... her campaign funded the Steele dossier, which was disinformation. Her campaign was accused of being a conduit for Russian intelligence. And according to her standard, does that mean that she should be arrested? I doubt it, because it doesn't work that way. And so what we're seeing here with people like Hillary Clinton, with the EU, with a thing called the Digital Services Act, is an effort to force companies to censor. It's notable when Musk bought Twitter, the first thing that Hillary Clinton seemed to do was to go to Europe and ask the Europeans to use the DSA to censor Americans, to force Musk to silence opposing views in the United States. That's a former presidential candidate in the United States asking Europeans to apply their censorship laws to silence other Americans. 

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waves during Day one of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 19, 2024.  (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Clinton garnered sharp criticism after suggesting Americans who engage in spreading disinformation "propaganda" should be held accountable to the highest extent of the law, and even arrested, in some cases.

"I think it's important to indict the Russians just as Mueller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016," the former presidential hopeful told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday. "But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda and whether they should be civilly, or even in some cases, criminally charged, is something that would be a better deterrence."

Turley fired back at Clinton, accusing her, alongside other critics, of trying to abuse her power by censoring Americans' right of freedom of speech. 

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Despite the irony, Clinton accused former President Donald Trump of trying to abuse his power and reverse Americans' most basic rights during an appearance on "Morning Joe." 

She also tried to link him to Project 2025, a 900-page right-wing transition plan that the former president has repeatedly denied any connection with. 

"We have seen him try to abuse power," Clinton said Thursday. "He is absolutely linked to this Project 2025 and all of their dark and dystopian efforts to turn the clock back on Americans' rights and the way we live and how we, you know, look at our futures together."

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