A new case has been filed in a state court in Pennsylvania challenging the eligibility of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — a known ally to former President Donald Trump — for the ballot in upcoming elections. The new case cites the same Constitutional provisions that have been used in a slew of similar cases nationwide, including prominent challenges to Trump himself: a portion of the 14th Amendment barring individuals who took an oath of office and then engaged in insurrection from later holding office again.
The connection made to Trump, Perry, and others is what became the violence of January 6, 2021. Previously emerging details have already connected Perry to ambitions of seating Jeffrey Clark at the helm of the federal Justice Department as Trump’s term drew to a close. Clark, then serving at a lower level in the department, was an evident supporter of Trump’s ambitions of staying in office despite losing to Joe Biden, infamously promoting inside the department a draft letter meant for Georgia officials that would have pushed the idea there was potentially some legitimacy to claims of extensive fraud and promoted the prospect of a special session of the state legislature potentially to consider election-altering action.
The planned missive was never sent amid opposition from top individuals actually leading the department at the time, and Clark was later charged in Georgia for alleged involvement in a criminal conspiracy targeting the state’s presidential election results from 2020. Clark was also clearly of interest to federal investigators amid their wide-ranging look at Trump’s post-election schemes that’s since become part of the work of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
“In part, the filing cites Perry’s role in trying to use the Department of Justice to help Trump stall the certification of the election by installing an acting attorney general who would be receptive to Trump’s false claims of election fraud,” the Associated Press summarized. Two challenges to Trump’s eligibility have found at least some success, with decisions against him appearing on forthcoming ballots in Colorado and Maine now appealed.
