Minocqua Brewing owner seeks to bar Donald Trump from 2024 ballot in Wisconsin – Madison.com
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Michigan’s Supreme Court has ruled that Trump can appear on the 2024 primary ballot %e2%80%94 the opposite of Colorado’s court’s ruling.
Minocqua Brewing Co. owner Kirk Bangstad has launched an effort to bar Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Wisconsin for the former president’s involvement in the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation’s Capitol.
However, the Wisconsin Elections Commission indicated hours after the complaint was delivered that it had been “disposed of without consideration” because it was filed directly against members of the bipartisan agency.
Bangstad, a former Democratic U.S. House and Wisconsin Assembly candidate who has his own political super PAC, on Thursday filed a complaint with the commission arguing that Trump should be disqualified from serving as president under the so-called insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding office.
The effort is among dozens across the country hoping to keep Trump’s name off state ballots next year.
“I wanted it to at least be in the history books that somebody, some person in Wisconsin, had the courage to try to get Trump off of our ballot,” Bangstad said of the effort.
Bangstad said his initial plan was to bypass the bipartisan elections commission, which consists of three Democratic and three Republican appointees, and file a lawsuit in circuit court. But he was persuaded to first file a formal complaint with the agency after receiving input from officials involved in similar lawsuits in other states.
“At the end of the day, they said, ‘Go by the letter of the law. Let them reject you first and then file in circuit court next,’” Bangstad told the State Journal.
“The 14th Amendment clearly states that if you are engaged in insurrection you can’t run for federal office,” he added.
Ultimately, the commission dismissed the complaint.
“It is the position of the Commission that a complaint against the Commission, against Commissioners in their official capacities, or against Commission staff, warrants an ethical recusal by the body,” commission attorney Angela Sharpe wrote in response to Bangstad’s complaint. “The Commission’s position reflects the need to avoid conflicts associated with an adjudicative body deciding a matter brought against itself, similar to the provisions of law and ethics precluding a judge from presiding over a case filed against herself, or someone with personal or professional ties to her.”
Bangstad said earlier in the day he plans to proceed with a lawsuit on the matter.
The commission does not decide which candidates are placed on presidential ballots. Rather, the task is carried out by a presidential preference selection committee composed of several state and national officials.
According to state statute, the committee “shall place the names of all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States on the ballot, and may, in addition, place the names of other candidates on the ballot.”
Bangstad’s complaint states there are only four constitutional requirements that an individual must meet in order to serve as president. The person must be a natural born citizen, have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years, over the age of 35 and “have never engaged in an insurrection after having previously taken an oath of office.”
“Donald J. Trump fails to meet those requirements and may not serve as President of the United States of America,” the complaint continues.
Last summer, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit funded by Bangstad’s Minocqua Brewing Co. Super PAC seeking to block U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, and Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, from being on the ballot that year for supporting efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
Tiffany and Fitzgerald were among 121 House Republicans who voted to object to counting Joe Biden’s presidential electors from Arizona on Jan. 6, 2021. Tiffany and Fitzgerald also were among 138 Republicans who voted to object to Biden’s Pennsylvania electors.
Johnson tried to pass documents signed by 10 Wisconsin Republicans alleging that Trump had won the 2020 election to former Vice President Mike Pence as Pence prepared to certify the election. The vice president’s office declined to accept the document from Johnson.
In that ruling, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said the plaintiffs’ claim, “if it exists at all,” was procedurally improper and would best be resolved by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Bangstad said the complaint and expected lawsuit largely mirror a similar legal challenge filed in Colorado. On Dec. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a split decision finding Trump ineligible to be included in that state’s presidential primary. That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
The Colorado case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never ruled on the rarely used Civil War-era provision.
“We hope this complaint keeps going and we will keep on fighting it, but if the U.S. Supreme Court negates what Colorado did, then our complaint will be negated as well,” Bangstad said.
Another potential scenario is that the U.S. Supreme Court leaves the matter to the states. If that occurs, the matter could potentially be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority in August.
The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot, noting that “we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”
The plaintiffs in Michigan can technically try again to disqualify Trump in the general election, though it’s likely there will be a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue by then.
Bangstad’s super PAC earlier this year filed a lawsuit directly with the state Supreme Court seeking to end Wisconsin’s decades-old private school voucher program, but the court declined to hear the case. Bangstad has said he plans to file a lawsuit in a lower court on the matter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Four of the 18 people charged alongside former President Donald Trump with participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia have now negotiated deals with prosecutors, pleading guilty to reduced charges in exchange for their truthful testimony in future trials.
Lawyer Jenna Ellis on Tuesday became the latest to turn against Trump, pleading guilty to a single felony charge in exchange for a sentence of probation rather than prison time. Fellow attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro reached similar deals last week, just as their trial in the case was supposed to start because they had invoked their rights to a speedy trial. Bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall last month was the first to plead guilty.
Trump and the others charged in the case have pleaded not guilty.
The sweeping indictment, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, pictured, in August, capped an investigation that had lasted more than two years and marked the fourth criminal case brought against the former president. Its 41 counts include racketeering, violating the oath of a public officer, forgery, false statements and other offenses.
Here’s a look at the 19 people charged:
Then-President Trump fixated on Georgia after the 2020 general election, refusing to accept his narrow loss in the state and making unfounded assertions of widespread election fraud there. He also called top state officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp, to urge them to find a way to reverse his loss in the state. In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump suggested the state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes needed for him to win the state. Willis opened the investigation into possible illegal attempts to influence the election shortly after a recording of that call was made public.
During several legislative hearings at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020, the former New York mayor and Trump attorney promoted unsupported allegations of widespread election fraud in Georgia. Prosecutors have said Giuliani was also involved in a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans serve as fake electors, falsely swearing that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers and a former dean of Chapman University’s law school in Southern California, was deeply involved in some of his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. He wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the results of the electoral certification during a joint session of Congress. That plan included putting in place a slate of “alternate” electors in seven battleground states, including Georgia, who would falsely certify that Trump had won their states.
Trump’s chief of staff visited Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs, while state investigators were conducting an audit of the signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in December 2020. Meadows obtained the phone number of the chief investigator for the secretary of state’s office, Frances Watson, and passed it along to Trump, who called her. He also participated in the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
A lawyer and staunch Trump ally, Powell was present for a now-infamous December 2020 meeting at the White House where participants hatched far-fetched schemes. She also was part of a group that met at the South Carolina home of conservative attorney Lin Wood in November 2020 “for the purpose of exploring options to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere,” prosecutors said. Additionally, prosecutors alleged Powell was involved in arranging for a computer forensics team to travel to rural Coffee County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, to copy data and software from elections equipment there in January 2021.
Prosecutors have said Chesebro, an attorney, worked with Republicans in numerous swing states Trump lost, including Georgia, in the weeks after the November 2020 election at the direction of Trump’s campaign. Chesebro worked on the coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
A U.S. Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, Clark presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results, according to testimony before the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Clark wanted the letter sent, but Justice Department superiors refused.
The lawyer appeared with Giuliani at a Dec. 3, 2020, hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made. Ellis also wrote at least two legal memos to Trump and his attorneys advising that Pence should “disregard certified electoral college votes from Georgia and other purportedly ‘contested’ states” when Congress met to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors said.
A Georgia-based lawyer, Smith was involved in multiple lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. He also gathered witnesses to provide testimony before Georgia legislative subcommittee hearings held in December 2020 on alleged issues with the state’s election.
A Georgia lawyer, Cheeley presented video clips to legislators of election workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta and alleged the workers were counting votes twice or sometimes three times. He spoke to the lawmakers after Giuliani.
A former White House aide who served as the director of Trump’s election day operations, Roman was involved in efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election.
The chairman of the Georgia GOP, Shafer was one of 16 state Republicans who met at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won and also declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. He also joined Trump in a lawsuit challenging the certification of the 2020 election in Georgia.
He was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. Still was the finance chairman for the state GOP in 2020 and served as a Georgia delegate to the Republican National Convention that year. He was elected to the Georgia state Senate in November 2022 and represents a district in Atlanta’s suburbs.
Prosecutors say Cliffgard Lee, a pastor, worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after Trump and his allies falsely accused them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count. Lee allegedly knocked on Freeman’s door, frightening her and causing her to call 911 three times, prosecutors said in a court filing last year.
Also known as Willie Lewis Floyd III, he served as director of Black Voices for Trump, and is accused of recruiting Lee to arrange a meeting with Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti.
Prosecutors allege Kutti, a publicist, claimed to have high-level law enforcement connections. They say Freeman met with Kutti at a police precinct, where she brought Floyd into the conversation on a speakerphone. Prosecutors say Kutti presented herself as someone who could help Freeman but then pressured her to falsely confess to election fraud.
Latham was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. She was also chair of the Coffee County Republican Party. She was at the county elections office for much of the day on Jan. 7, 2021, and welcomed a computer forensics team that arrived to copy software and data from the county’s election equipment in what the secretary of state’s office has said was “unauthorized access” to the machines.
An Atlanta-area bail bondsman, Hall was allegedly involved in commandeering voting information that was the property of Dominion Voting Systems from Coffee County, a small south Georgia jurisdiction. Also charged in the scheme were Powell, Latham and former county elections supervisor Misty Hampton.
She was the elections director in Coffee County. Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, when a computer forensics team copied software and data from the county’s election equipment. She also allowed two other men who had been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to access the elections office later that month and to spend hours inside with the equipment.
Kirk Bangstad
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Michigan’s Supreme Court has ruled that Trump can appear on the 2024 primary ballot %e2%80%94 the opposite of Colorado’s court’s ruling.
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Kirk Bangstad
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