A liberal-minded watchdog warned Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he will file a lawsuit to keep him off the ballot if he runs for president in 2024.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told Mr. Trump in a letter that it would “seek your disqualification” over his role in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, citing a provision of the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War.
Noah Bookbinder, the group’s president and CEO, wrote to Mr. Trump that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment “provides that no person engaging in rebellion or insurrection against the Constitution — after having first taken an oath to support it — shall have no federal or state office.”
The provision was intended to prevent rebel Confederate officials from holding positions in the US government after the Civil War ended. Mr Bookbinder said it would disqualify Mr Trump “based on your involvement in the rebellion that ended on January 6, 2021”.
“The evidence that you engaged in insurrection as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment — including by mobilizing, inciting and aiding those who attacked the Capitol — is overwhelming,” Mr. Bookbinder wrote.
CREW posted the letter on its website.
No federal officials were removed from office under the provision in connection with the Jan. 6 riots, despite efforts by liberals to bar Republicans Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia and Madison Cowthorne of North Carolina from running.
One federal judge in New Mexico did remove Otero County Commissioner Covey Griffin via the amendment. This was the first successful use of the provision since 1869.
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