Plaintiffs are appealing a decision this week from a Colorado judge that found Trump to have engaged in insurrection with his incitement of the crowds on January 6, 2021, but stopped short of blocking him from ballots for the 2024 presidential election on the basis of the 14th Amendment.
The decision came in the widely publicized court case from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and others that sought to apply that amendment’s restrictions on holding office to Trump. The constitutional restrictions at issue apply to individuals including persons who previously took an oath of office and then engaged in insurrection, something that’s also been alleged of Trump in court challenges in other states.
“The court’s decision affirms what our clients alleged in this lawsuit: that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection based on his role in January 6th,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in prepared remarks released this week. “We are proud to have brought this historic case and know we are right on the facts and right on the law. When we filed this case, we knew it likely would not end at the district court level. We will be filing an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court shortly. Today was not the end of this effort, but another step along the way.”
In his federal criminal case from Jack Smith accusing him of criminal conspiracies targeting the presidential election results from 2020, prosecutors have already previewed that they intend to use Trump’s rhetoric, including after office, against him as part of the context allegedly supporting the accusations of election-targeting conspiracy. That includes his promotion of the idea of issuing pardons to January 6 participants if he regains the White House, with the government saying this all speaks to the ex-president’s intentions. And House Republicans, meanwhile, are doing… something, having this week launched a mass release of footage from the Capitol on January 6 to the general public.
