Legal calls are growing to disqualify Donald Trump from running for office over the Capitol assault

The United States Supreme Court should say so Donald Trump He is ineligible to become president again because he led the violent attack on the Capitol in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat, lawyers leading the fight to keep him off the ballot said.

In a file full of Vivid descriptions of the January 6, 2021 violence at the Capitol, The lawyers urged the justices not to hesitate to fulfill their constitutional duty and defend the Colorado court’s first-of-its-kind decision to expel the 2024 Republican presidential candidate from the state’s primary elections.

“No one, not even the former president, is above the law,” the lawyers wrote.

The court will hear the arguments in less than two weeks an emblematic case that has the potential to upset the presidential election next November in the United States.

The case gives the High Court its first look at a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars certain people who “participated in the insurrection” from holding public office. The amendment was adopted in 1868, after the Civil War.

In their court argument, the lawyers said: “Trump intentionally organized and incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol in a desperate attempt to prevent the counting of electoral votes cast against him” after losing the election to the Democrat Joe Biden. .

They asked for a decision making clear that what happened on January 6 was an insurrection, for which Trump is responsible. The president is covered by the constitutional provision in question and Congress need not act before states can enforce it, the lawyers wrote.

Donald Trump’s responsibility

The written presentation includes extensive details of Trump’s actions through January 6, including his December 19, 2020 tweet in which he informed his supporters of the protest planned for the day Congress would count the electoral votes and wrote, “Be there, it’s going to be wild.”

Then, in a speech to supporters on January 6, the lawyers wrote: “Trump lit the fuse.” The report reproduces photographs of that day’s chaos, including that of Capitol Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was trapped in a doorway during the attack.

Trump’s lawyers argue that efforts to keep him out of the election “threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and promise to unleash mayhem and mayhem” if other states follow Colorado’s lead.

The Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling should be overturned for several reasons, Trump’s defenders wrote, including that the former president did not participate in the insurrection and that the presidency is not covered by the amendment.

They also argue that Congress would have to enact legislation before states can invoke the provision to exclude candidates from the polls.

The Judges They will hear arguments on February 8. Trump has already won the Republican Party’s first two presidential races: the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley is Trump’s only remaining major Republican opponent.

However, both sides said the court must act quickly so voters know whether Trump is fit to serve as president.

Source: AP