Trial begins Monday to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be blocked from Colorado ballot – KKTV
DENVER, Colo. (KKTV) – Whether Colorado voters will see former President Donald Trump’s name on ballots next year is now up the courts, as a trial over the matter begins Monday morning.
Washington-based advocacy group CREW filed a lawsuit at the start of September, stating it believed Trump incited the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and thereby violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That, CREW said, should bar the former president from being on the 2024 ballot.
The 14th Amendment was a post-Civil War amendment that stated in Section 3, known as the Disqualification Clause, that no one can run for public office if they engaged in an insurrection.
Trump has fought the lawsuit, which is directed at Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. After the lawsuit was filed, the former president’s campaign team told 11 News, “Joe Biden, Democrats, and Never Trumpers are scared to death because they see polls showing President Trump winning in the general election. The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and DC. There is no legal basis for this effort except in the minds of those who are pushing it.”
The former president’s request for the lawsuit to be dismissed was overruled by Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace, who laid out her reasoning in a 24-page ruling on Oct. 20.
Griswold has previously told 11 News, “I look forward to the Colorado Court’s substantive resolution of the issues, and am hopeful that this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for office.”
The judge has said she hopes to make a decision by Thanksgiving.
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