Trump to face ballot disqualification trial in Colorado

To find out if former US President Donald Trump is barred from the state’s ballot in the 2024 election due to his alleged involvement in a deadly attack on the US Capitol intended to keep him in office, a trial about the allegations began on Monday in Colorado. The week-long trial before a Denver judge may also serve as a litmus test for Trump’s opponents elsewhere, as it relates to a seldom-utilized Civil War-era U.S. Constitution provision that prohibits persons who have participated in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office. Although advocacy groups have sued Trump in Michigan and Minnesota, the Colorado case is the first to go to trial. Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, has denied any wrongdoing during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a group of his supporters who intended to stop Congress from recognising Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election held in November 2020. The “absurd” lawsuit and others like it, according to Trump’s campaign, are “stretching the law beyond recognition.” Opinion polls indicate that Trump is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in what is anticipated to be a rematch with Biden the following year. By disqualifying him in enough closely contested states, his opponents aim to prevent Trump from winning, although many legal experts believe this is an unlikely tactic. Even if the plaintiffs win, the cases present a number of largely untested legal issues, so the last word would probably belong to the U.S. Supreme Court dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority that includes three Trump appointees. Under Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which was created in the wake of the Civil War to prevent former Confederate rebels from holding federal office, the Colorado lawsuit aims to prevent the state’s top election official from placing Trump on the ballot. Trump “incited, exacerbated, and otherwise engaged in a violent insurrection” by urging his supporters to march on the Capitol and stop the certification of Biden’s win, according to the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which filed the lawsuit. Judge Sarah Wallace of Colorado District Court has rejected five attempts by Trump and his allies to have the case dismissed; the most recent attempt was on October 25, when she rejected Trump’s claims that courts lack authority. A number of legal cases are pending against Trump while he runs for president. The fourth week of a civil fraud trial is underway in a New York state lawsuit brought against Trump and his family business. In response to four criminal indictments, he has entered a not guilty plea. These cases pertain to attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election as well as the removal and improper handling of classified government documents after he departed office in January 2021. (With agency inputs)