Blogger: Free speech, not incitement

HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- An Internet blogger and talk show host accused of inciting violence against Connecticut lawmakers is protected by the First Amendment, his attorney says.

A lawyer for Harold "Hal" Turner told a court in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday that the blogger knows the difference between criminal acts and constitutionally protected free speech because he was trained by the FBI as an informant, The Hartford Courant reported.

"Mr. Turner was trained by the FBI," Michael Orozco of Newark, N.J., said. "He was told where the line was -- what he could say."

Orozco said Turner, a New Jersey resident, worked as an "agent provocateur" for the FBI from roughly 2002 to 2007.

"His job was basically to publish information which would cause other parties to act in a manner that would cause their arrest," the Courant reported the attorney as saying.

Connecticut State Capitol Police charged Turner with inciting injury to state Rep. Michael Lawlor, state Sen. Andrew McDonald and Thomas Jones, an employee in the Connecticut Ethics Office, after he wrote on his blog: "These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die."