Lawyers argue whether the Constitution鈥檚 鈥榠nsurrection鈥� clause blocks Trump from the 2024 ballot
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Court arguments have begun in the efforts to use an insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution to bar former President Donald Trump from running for his old job again. Testimony on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, is focusing on whether the violent Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection as defined by the 14th Amendment and whether Trump鈥檚 role in it meets the provision鈥檚 threshold for being barred from public office.
Attorney for former president Donald Trump Scott Gessler delivers an opening statement during a hearing Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Denver. The lawsuit seeks to keep Trump off the state ballot.
Judge Sarah B. Wallace presides over a hearing for a lawsuit that seeks to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot, in court in Denver on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.
Washington DC Police Department officer Daniel Hodges is sworn in before testifying during a lawsuit to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot, in court Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Denver.
U.S. Rep Eric Swalwell, D-Calif, remotely testifies as Judge Sarah B. Wallace presides over a hearing for a lawsuit to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot in court Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Denver.
Attorney Eric Olson delivers opening remarks for a lawsuit that seeks to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot, in court in Denver on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.
CAPTION CORRECTION CORRECTS IDENTIFICATIONS: Mike Davis, the founder and president of the Article III Project, center left, and Donald Trump's campaign adviser Jason Miller, talk outside the courtroom before beginning a hearing for a lawsuit that seeks to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Denver.
FILE - Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Court arguments have begun in the efforts to use an insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution to bar former President Donald Trump from running for his old job again. Testimony on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, is focusing on whether the violent Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection as defined by the 14th Amendment and whether Trump鈥檚 role in it meets the provision鈥檚 threshold for being barred from public office.
Sean Grimsley, attorney for the petitioners, hands a document to Judge Sarah B Wallace during a hearing for a lawsuit to keep former President Donald Trump off the state ballot, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Denver.
DENVER (AP) 鈥� Colorado lawyers seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from running for the White House again argued on Monday that his role in the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol runs afoul of the Constitution鈥檚 insurrection clause, opening a hearing that could break new ground in constitutional law.
Attorney Eric Olson recounted Trump鈥檚 violent rhetoric preceding the Jan. 6 attack and his encouraging a crowd that came within 鈥�40 feet鈥� of the vice president when it stormed the Capitol. He said Trump 鈥渟ummoned and organized the mob.鈥�
鈥淲e are here because Trump claims, after all that, that he has the right to be president again,鈥� Olson said. 鈥淏ut our Constitution, the shared charter of our nation, says he cannot do so.鈥�
Trump鈥檚 legal team and presidential campaign assailed the lawsuit as little more than an attempt by Democrats to derail his attempt to reclaim his old job. Trump is so far dominating the Republican presidential primary.
Before the hearing on the lawsuit began, Trump鈥檚 lawyers filed a motion to have the judge recuse herself because she had donated in the past to a liberal group in the state. She said no. The campaign also noted the current lawsuit was filed by a liberal nonprofit in a state that voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
鈥淭hey send money to these dark money groups 鈥� they go to a Democratic jurisdiction and a Democratic judge,鈥� Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
Monday鈥檚 hearing in Colorado state court is in the first of two lawsuits that could end up reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Minnesota Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a similar case.
Ultimately, either the Colorado or Minnesota case is expected to land at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never ruled on the Civil War-era provision. Section Three of the 14th Amendment prohibits those who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and then 鈥渆ngaged in insurrection鈥� against it from holding higher office.
The Colorado testimony began with details about the Jan. 6 assault that was intended to stop Congress from certifying Biden鈥檚 election win. Witnesses included some who were there.
Officer Daniel Hodges of Washington鈥檚 Metropolitan Police Department recalled being beaten and having someone try to gouge out his eye as he defended the Capitol from the rioters. Footage from the body camera he was wearing that day was shown in court.
鈥淚 was afraid for my life and my colleagues,鈥� Hodges said. 鈥淚 was afraid for the people in the U.S. Capitol building 鈥� congressmen, the vice president and what these people would do to them and how it would affect our democracy.鈥�
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell testified that members of the House watched the attack on their phones with mounting alarm as they grabbed gas masks and contemplated how to defend themselves. He said they all followed Trump鈥檚 messages on Twitter carefully.
鈥淲e connected the president鈥檚 tweets to our own safety in the chamber and also the integrity of the proceedings,鈥� said Swalwell, who was manager of the House鈥檚 impeachment of Trump for the attack and also filed a federal lawsuit against him for inciting the riot.
Former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon testified about several hours of what he called 鈥渉and-to-hand combat鈥� with Trump supporters storming the Capitol. The plaintiffs鈥� lawyers played several videos capturing the day鈥檚 violence, as well as a montage of Trump tweets and statements falsely blaming election fraud for his 2020 loss, culminating in his heated speech to the crowd on Jan. 6.
The case will pivot on whether the Jan. 6 attack meets the meaning of 鈥渋nsurrection鈥� in the 14th Amendment. It will also hinge on whether Trump鈥檚 action meets the definition of 鈥渆ngaging鈥� and whether the rarely used provision was meant to apply to the presidency.
Trump鈥檚 lawyers contend the former president was simply exercising his free speech rights to warn about election results he did not believe were legitimate. They noted cases where the congressional authors of Section Three declined to use it more than a century ago against people who only rhetorically backed the confederacy.
His lawyers said none of the issues are simple in a provision of the Constitution that hasn鈥檛 been used in 150 years. In court filings, they said the insurrection clause was never meant to apply to the office of president, which is not mentioned in the text, unlike 鈥淪enator or Representative in Congress鈥� and 鈥渆lector of President and Vice President.鈥�
鈥淭his is a legal Hail Mary by the Democrats,鈥� said Mike Davis, an attorney who appeared with representatives of the Trump campaign outside court before the trial began. 鈥淭his case is going to fail.鈥�
An attorney representing Trump, Scott Gessler, called the lawsuit 鈥渁nti-democratic鈥� and noted that at least one other presidential candidate 鈥� socialist labor organizer Eugene Debs 鈥� ran from prison without people trying to disqualify him.
A former Colorado secretary of state, Gessler said there is an informal principle in election law known as 鈥渢he rule of democracy,鈥� which essentially means to 鈥渆rr on the side of letting people vote鈥� whenever there is an ambiguity.
At the start of Monday鈥檚 hearing 鈥� held in a large downtown Denver courtroom filled with attorneys, journalists and several armed sheriff鈥檚 deputies 鈥� the judge rejected the motion by Trump鈥檚 attorneys that asked her to step aside because she once contributed money to a liberal group.
Trump鈥檚 campaign said it had filed a motion for the judge, Sarah B. Wallace, to recuse herself because she had made a $100 donation in October 2022 to the Colorado Turnout Project, a group whose website says it was formed to 鈥減revent violent insurrections鈥� such as the Jan. 6 attack.
She was appointed to the bench in August of that year by Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat. Wallace denied the motion, saying she didn鈥檛 recall the donation, made before she formally took the bench, until the motion was filed and has no preconceptions about the legal issues in the case.
鈥淚 will not allow this legal proceeding to turn into a circus,鈥� she said.