Trump disqualified from Colorado primary ballot citing 14th Amendment: Live – The Independent

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In an unprecedented and historic judgement, Donald Trump is struck from the ballot in the Centennial State over his role in inciting January 6
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Donald Trump has been removed from Colorado’s 2024 presidential election ballot in an unprecedented and historic ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.
In a 4-3 decision on Tuesday, the panel ruled Mr Trump could be kept off the state’s GOP ballot under the 14th Amendment, which bars those who took a constitutional oath and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office, over his role in the January 6 Capitol riot.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the majority opinion reads. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction.”
The decision, which is stayed until early January, only applies to Colorado’s ballot and Mr Trump has already vowed to appeal.
While it appears likely the conservative-heavy US Supreme Court may overturn the ruling, it paves the way for other states to potentially follow suit, while some Republicans are already vying for retaliatory action against President Joe Biden.
Mr Trump wasted no time in sending out fundraising emails to supporters in response to the decision and pronounced it “A SAD DAY IN AMERICA” on his Truth Social platform.
The US Supreme Court could determine whether Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for crimes connected to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, and whether his name can be removed from ballots because of them.
Those two major constitutional questions before the nation’s highest court – where three of the nine justices were appointed by the former president – arrive in the middle of the 2024 race for the presidency, and could have resounding impacts beyond Mr Trump’s campaign.
The Supreme Court is considering whether Mr Trump has “presidential immunity” from charges connected to his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including his failure to stop a mob of his supporters from breaking into the halls of Congress to stop the certification of the results.
His campaign also pledged to go to the Supreme Court following a Colorado ruling that bars him from appearing on 2024 ballots under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits candidates who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office.
Twenty GOP state attorneys general came to Donald Trump’s defence just hours before the deadline for him to respond to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request that the Supreme Court decide if Mr Trump has presidential immunity for actions he took while in office.
“The issue before the Court is a narrow one. While the question of a president’s immunity from prosecution is self-evidently important, the question here is whether the ‘public’ interest ‘require[s] immediate determination’ of that question,” the officials write.
“As agents of the public, [we] offer a different perspective than the federal government on whether the public interest is served by the prosecution’s extraordinary request. The United States’ petition repeatedly proclaims— but never explains why—’[i]t is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,’,” they add. “That silence is both telling and troubling, suggesting that the United States’ demand for extraordinary and immediate relief is driven by partisan interests, not the public interest.”
Nearly all of the 2024 Republican presidential candidates were quick to defend their political rival, former president Donald Trump, after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from the state’s ballot on Tuesday evening.
The state’s supreme court unprecedently ruled that Mr Trump was ineligible to appear on the ballot under Section Three of the 14th Amendment, otherwise known as the insurrection clause. The court said the provision applied to the office of the president and Mr Trump’s actions leading up to January 6 were part of his efforts to aid an insurrection.
Despite Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy fighting Mr Trump for votes in the upcoming election, the four all said the Colorado court’s ruling was wrong.
The only person who did not was Asa Hutchinson.
Mr Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur, went as far as to say he would remove his own name from the Colorado primary ballot to stand in solidarity with the former president.
The candidates’ responses largely fell in line with other Republicans’ reactions.
Colorado became the first state to prohibit Donald Trump from appearing on the primary ballot sparking anger among Republicans
Joe Biden’s management of the US’s role in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is deeply unpopular thanks in part to a serious divide among Americans generationally regarding the war.
A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College finds Mr Biden trailing his expected 2020 challenger, Donald Trump, when Americans are asked which politician they’d trust more to lead the US through the crisis.
It’s a finding that underscores how badly the incumbent president’s numbers are with voters in his own party as he heads into an election year facing calls not just from Republicans but from Democrats as well to step aside and let a younger candidate run.
John Bowden has more.
More Americans would trust Donald Trump to handle Gaza crisis, according to poll
A campaign watchdog group has filed five complaints against Florida governor Ron DeSantis's campaign this year, accusing the GOP presidential primary candidate of illegally coordinating with a super PAC.
The Campaign Legal Centre is asking federal regulators to examine the Never Back Down super PAC to determine if its relationship with DeSantis’s campaign violates federal law.
Never Back Down has reportedly used its funds to pay for campaign operations in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucus and hosts events with DeSantis. But those events may violate federal campaign laws.
Graig Graziosi is here to explain.
Mr DeSantis’s campaign downplayed the complaints as politically-motivated and unfounded
President Joe Biden said that there is “no question” former president Donald Trump supported an insurrection after Colorado’s supreme court ruled that Mr Trump is ineligible for the presidency.
Mr Biden spoke to reporters in Milwaukee after they asked whether Mr Trump is an insurrectionist.
“It’s self-evident,” he told reporters. “You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero.”
Attorneys for Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West who is now a co-defendant in Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, filed notice on Monday that they will no longer be representing their client, declining to give a reason for the decision.
Hours earlier, Ms Kutti posted a photo to Instagram alongside Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman,” who was convicted of obstruction in connection with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
A caption on the photo, in which they’re both holding middle fingers to the camera, reads “cue the haters”.
Earlier this month, Ms Kutti appeared to threaten a witness in the case, fuelling speculation that the office of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis would ask a judge to revoke her bond.
Alex Woodward has more.
Trevian Kutti allegedly threatened a witness in the case, fuelling speculation prosecutors would try to revoke bond
Bad news for pro-Trump Pennsylvania Republican congressman Scott Perry, whose attempt to shield his personal communications on constitutional grounds has failed, requiring him to hand over 1,659 documents to government investigators pursuing the events leading up to the Capitol riot.
Perry’s phone was seized by the FBI in 2022, prior to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith taking over the investigation, but agents required a second warrant to be able to access its data.
Scott Perry
Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled on Tuesday that 396 of Perry’s 2,055 records were protected by the US Constitution’s speech or debate clause but that the remainder must be turned over.
NBC reports that some of those now free to review include “messages about alleged election fraud and the role of the vice president in certifying the electoral vote count”.

The New Hampshire governor, who has endorsed Nikki Haley, has been promoting the party line in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, repeating that a Trump PAC’s new ad attacking her betrays real fear about her prospects.
“You don’t worry about it. He’s scared. That’s actually the best part about this ad, is that clearly Trump is scared,” Sununu told Tapper.
“Clearly, he knows momentum’s on her side. She has a ground game that he doesn’t have: the door-knockers, the folks on the phone, the connection. She’s answering questions, doing things that Trump is not and will not do over the next four or five weeks.
“So, yeah, when he starts spending money on attacking someone directly, you know, he’s very nervous about losing.”
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Republican candidate for President Former US President Donald Trump, addresses a crowd of supporters during a rally at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, USA, 16 December 2023
EPA
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