A Washington-based watchdog group on Wednesday filed suit seeking to bar former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Colorado, ABC News reported.
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court based on Trump’s alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, ABC News said.
“Having disqualified himself from public office by violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, Donald Trump must be removed from the ballot, according to a lawsuit filed today by six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters including former state, federal and local officials,” CREW’s website says.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and called the push to disqualify him under the 14th Amendment “election interference.”
“On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood before the nation and took an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,'” CREW’s website says.
“After losing the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump violated that oath by recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office.”
Former Colorado House and Senate Majority leader Norma Anderson, who left the GOP after the Jan. 6 attack, is one of the lawsuit’s petitioners.
“Spending 19 years as a state legislator and serving in leadership gave me the opportunity to work across the aisle and to always work to protect the freedoms our Constitution has given us as citizens,” Anderson said. “I am proud to continue that work by bringing this lawsuit and ensuring the eligibility of candidates on Colorado ballots.”
Former Rep. Claudine (Cmarada) Schneider, R-R.I., is also a petitioner in the case.
“In my decade of service in the House of Representatives, I certified multiple presidential elections and saw firsthand the importance of ethics, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy,” Schneider said. “This lawsuit is crucial to protecting and fortifying those fundamental democratic values, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
Denver Post columnist and Republican activist Krista Kafer is another petitioner.
“As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol,” Kafer said.
“Those who by force and by falsehood subvert democracy are unfit to participate in it. That’s why I am part of this lawsuit to prevent an insurrectionist from appearing on Colorado’s ballot.”
Trump lost Colorado during both presidential elections in which he ran — 2016 to Hillary Clinton 48.1% to 43.3%, and 2020 to Joe Biden 55.4% to 41.9%.
CREW President and CEO Noah Bookbinder was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in March 2022. He once served as chief counsel for criminal justice for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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