Trump and the Jan 6 investigation

[Solauren]

Possibilities that also exists are -
Trump told someone he wanted a Jury Trial, and then a few days later when they asked him to confirm he was like 'Nah', then changed his mind again.

There is also the possibility that Trump mentioned he hoped that anyone on the jury would be living in a property he owned, and he could have them influenced, and one of the lawyers decided 'oh, bad idea to be involved, I heard he doesn't want a jury'.

Also, there is the possibility someone did it deliberately in order for trump to demand a retrial and thereby pay his lawyers more.

Finally, it's possible someone high up in the Trump Org (i.e his kids) said 'no jury, put him before a judge' because they want their father to start losing trials and eventually go to prison. That could give them alot more control.

[LadyTevar]

And now there's a GAG ORDER, because Trump mouthed off on Truth Social claiming the judge's court clerk was sleeping with a US Senator and tainting the trial.

NY Judge orders limited Gag Order

But.. what does TRUMP DO?

Hours after Gag Order, Trump launches fresh vitriol against judge

Trump Rages on Truth Social Hours After Gag Order

So... nope, Trump's going to hoist his own petard and get his ass in jail over this.

[Lord Revan]

That's assuming he doesn't get elected to president and nullify the whole thing.

[Rogue 9]

That's assuming he doesn't get elected to president and nullify the whole thing.

The President can't pardon state charges.

[Ralin]

That's assuming he doesn't get elected to president and nullify the whole thing.

We're not talking about charges. We're talking about contempt of court. That means the judge goes fuck you and has Trump hauled off to a cell for however long for disrespecting him.

Theoretically.

[Zaune]

That's assuming he doesn't get elected to president and nullify the whole thing.

Or his fanclub don't rise up in armed insurrection. Again.

I hope that the next time the US has a presidential election and the losing candidate tries to incite violence rather than concede, their Secret Service detail have orders to put a bullet through their head if they won't call off the mob.

[bilateralrope]

Trump’s ex-lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election case

Plea agreement includes fine, restitution to the state as well as an apology letter, six years’ probation – and testifying at trial

Hugo Lowell in Washington
@hugolowell
Thu 19 Oct 2023 17.20 BST

The former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, charged alongside the former president for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, has pleaded guilty as part of a cooperation agreement with prosecutors just days before her trial was scheduled to start.

The conversion of Powell into a cooperating witness marks a major victory for the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, given Powell’s involvement in some of Trump’s most brazen schemes to reverse Trump’s election defeat – which she could now testify about.

Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit interference with election duties. She was sentenced to six years’ probation, a $6,000 fine, $2,700 in restitution to the state, and is required turn over documents and testify truthfully in her co-defendants’ trials.

The plea deal formalizes Powell as the second defendant charged in the sprawling 2020 election subversion case brought by Fulton county prosecutors to plead guilty; the first was a local Republican bail bondsman, Scott Hall.

Powell was initially accused of racketeering and computer trespass crimes related to efforts to allow Republican election deniers gain unlawful access to voting machines in Coffee county. Powell faced a problem when Hall flipped, because he had potentially incriminating evidence against her.

The most far-reaching consequence of Powell taking the plea deal could be her agreement to testify in future trials, given her proximity to Trump in the final weeks of his presidency and her close involvement in various schemes to reverse Trump’s election defeat.

Among other episodes, Powell was a key player in a contentious December 2020 meeting at the White House, where Trump named Powell a special counsel to investigate supposed election fraud, after she pitched a plan to suspend normal laws and use military force to seize voting machines.

The meeting, details of which were previously reported by the Guardian, involved Trump, his White House counsels and Rudy Giuliani, the former Trump lawyer who has also been charged with seeking to overturn the 2020 election results by Fulton county prosecutors.

In that sense, legal experts said, Powell’s cooperation marks a significant moment in the case because the threat of Powell testifying against Giuliani could compel him to take a deal in turn to testify against someone such as Trump himself.

Powell was also involved in the Coffee county conspiracy, which involved Trump allies hiring a team of forensics experts gaining access to voting machines and copying virtually every part of the election systems, before uploading it all online.

A day after the Capitol attack in Washington, surveillance footage showed data experts from SullivanStrickler, a firm that specializes in “imaging”, or making exact copies, of electronic devices, arrive at the Coffee county election office.

What happened inside the elections office is only partially captured on surveillance video, but records show the SullivanStrickler team imaged almost every component of the election systems, including ballot scanners, the server used to count votes, thumb drives and flash memory cards.

Powell’s involvement is alleged to have come in helping to organize the data breach, though she had previously argued she did nothing wrong because it was her non-profit company that paid the forensics experts and there had been prior authorization from local officials.

They flipped the kraken.

[Dominus Atheos]

That's assuming he doesn't get elected to president and nullify the whole thing.

Or his fanclub don't rise up in armed insurrection. Again.

I hope that the next time the US has a presidential election and the losing candidate tries to incite violence rather than concede, their Secret Service detail have orders to put a bullet through their head if they won't call off the mob.

To be completely fair to the Secret Service, Trump wanted to go the Capital building (where congress is, for non-americans) to lead the insurrection personally and they forcibly took his ass away from the insurrection and to the white house. He allegedly tried to choke his Secret Service driver when he realized they were disobeying his order.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/st ... itol-jan-6

[bilateralrope]

Kenneth Chesebro: Pro-Trump lawyer pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case, implicates Trump in fake elector conspiracy

By Marshall Cohen, Nick Valencia, Maxime Tamsett and Fabiana Chaparro, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 2:45 PM EDT, Fri October 20, 2023

Atlanta
CNN
—
Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who helped orchestrate the Trump campaign’s 2020 fake electors plot, pleaded guilty Friday in the Georgia election subversion case to being part of a conspiracy alongside former President Donald Trump and others.

The plea deal is another blow to Trump and a major victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who charged Trump and 18 others in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It comes one day after former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony – conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Fulton County prosecutors recommended that he serve 5 years of probation and pay $5,000 in restitution, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee imposed that sentence at Friday’s hearing.

Chesebro has also agreed to testify in future court proceedings.

As part of his plea deal, Chesebro admitted that he conspired to put forward fake GOP electors in Georgia with Trump and former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. Giuliani and Eastman have both pleaded not guilty in the Georgia case, and now face the prospect of Chesebro taking the witness stand against them.

The plea came shortly after jury selection in the trial began Friday morning as planned, but was short-lived. A source familiar with the discussions said the likelihood of Chesebro taking a deal increased after Powell made a surprise turn and pleaded guilty on Thursday.

Fake electors plot

An attorney who worked to undermine the results of the 2020 election, Chesebro helped develop the Trump’s campaign’s plot to put forward unauthorized slates of GOP electors in Georgia and six other states. (In previous court filings, Chesebro’s lawyers have denied that he devised the plan.)

He wrote a series of memos in 2020 spelling out what the pro-Trump electors should do in their respective states. In one memo Chesebro acknowledged that he was promoting a “controversial strategy” that even the Supreme Court with its conservative supermajority would “likely” reject.

Chesebro and other Trump allies hoped then-Vice President Mike Pence would use the GOP electors to justify delaying Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory – or even throw out Biden’s lawful electors and recognize the fake GOP slates instead on January 6, 2021.

Prosecutors said in court that Chesebro acknowledged in the plea that he “created and distributed false Electoral College documents” to Trump operatives in Georgia and other states, and that he worked “in coordination with” the Trump campaign.

“The defendant provided detailed instructions to co-conspirators in Georgia and other states for creating and distributing these false documents,” prosecutor Daysha Young said at the plea hearing Friday.

Chesebro was originally charged with seven crimes, including a violation of Georgia’s RICO act, conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer. Six of the seven felony charges were dropped as part of the deal.

In addition to testifying at future trials, Chesebro agreed to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia.

Three defendants have now pleaded guilty in the sprawling racketeering case: Chesebro, Powell and Georgia-based bail bondsman Scott Hall.

Powell and Hall both admitted their roles in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia. As part of her plea deal, Powell agreed to testify at future trials, which could hurt Trump’s defense. Both Powell and Hall were sentenced to probation.

Ahead of their scheduled trial, Chesebro and Powell lost several bids to get the case thrown out, including earlier this week. In a spate of pretrial rulings, McAfee rejected their arguments that Fulton County prosecutors misapplied Georgia’s RICO law and that the indictment failed to establish key elements of the crimes that have been charged.

Both Powell and Chesebro are unindicted co-conspirators in Trump’s federal election subversion case, which was brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Trump’s federal trial is set for March 2024 in Washington, DC.

Steve Sadow, lead counsel for Trump in the Georgia case, said he believes Friday’s developments will help the former president.

“It appears to me that the guilty plea to count 15 of the Fulton County indictment was the result of pressure by Fani Willis and her team and the prosecution’s looming threat of prison time,” Sadow said. “However, it is very important for everyone to note that the RICO charge and every other count was dismissed. Once again, I fully expect that truthful testimony would be favorable to my defense strategy.”

Jurors asked about Trump rallies, Jan. 6 hearings

Hundreds of potential jurors for the Chesebro trial were summoned to the Fulton County courthouse on Friday, where they filled out questionnaires that were designed to weed out people with conflicts-of-interest or anyone who couldn’t act impartially.

CNN overheard a court official reading aloud from portions the jury questionnaire in a public area of the courthouse where the jury selection process was taking place. The questionnaire itself has not been made public.

The potential jurors were asked if they “express divisive political opinions,” if they ever attended a Trump rally or any “MAGA events,” or posted anything online about “Donald Trump’s charges.”

They were also asked specifically if they watched the highly publicized January 6 committee hearings last year, which presented in dramatic fashion how Trump tried to overturn the election.

The potential jurors were also asked if they voted in any federal elections over the past 15 years. There is no indication that they were asked who they voted for, and that is never typically part of a jury questionnaire.

At a hearing earlier this week, Fulton County prosecutors and attorneys for Chesebro haggled over how many politically charged questions should be included. Specifically, Chesebro’s attorneys wanted to include questions that could tease out how jurors feel about “MAGA Republicans” and Trump’s attempt to “steal the election.” It’s unclear if those questions made it into the questionnaire.

After Chesebro’s plea, McAfee returned to the jury room to dismiss the jury pool, which responded with applause and cheers.

If Trump was hoping for the speedy trials to give him a preview of the prosecutions arguments for his trial, he's out of luck.

[bilateralrope]

Another Trump lawyer who pushed to overturn 2020 election pleads guilty

Jenna Ellis is the third Trump-aligned attorney to plead guilty to crimes stemming from the 2020 election, joining Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro.

By JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY

10/24/2023 09:46 AM EDT

Updated: 10/24/2023 10:47 AM EDT

Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney who worked with Rudy Giuliani to press state legislatures to overturn the 2020 election results, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge that she participated in an effort to make false statements to Georgia lawmakers about election fraud.

Ellis is the third Trump-aligned attorney in recent days to plead guilty to crimes stemming from the 2020 election, joining Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, who each accepted deals to admit to aspects of the charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

All three lawyers had been charged alongside Donald Trump and many of his other allies with a sprawling racketeering conspiracy. Their pleas may reshape the case against Trump, supplying prosecutors with testimony from some of his closest advisers, who are now admitting for the first time that some of their actions crossed the line into criminality.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” Ellis said through tears during a court appearance in Atlanta Tuesday morning.

Ellis acknowledged that she helped supply false information related to claims by Giuliani and another Trump lawyer that nearly 100,000 mail-in ballots were fraudulently cast, that 2,500 felons illegally voted, that more than 60,000 underage people illegally registered to vote, and that more than 10,000 dead people voted in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia, among other assertions. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in future proceedings, serve five years of probation, pay $5,000 in restitution and write a letter of apology.

Ellis, 38, described herself as a relatively junior member of Trump’s legal team.

“I relied on others, including lawyers with many more years of experience than I to provide me with true and reliable information,” Ellis told the judge in the case, Scott McAfee. “What I did not do, but should have done, Your Honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true. In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia. I failed to do my due diligence.”

After the election, Ellis traveled often with Giuliani to states won by Joe Biden and pushed Republican lawmakers to appoint alternate slates of presidential electors.

During her statement to the judge Tuesday, Ellis alluded to her previous admission to misrepresenting claims of election fraud in a deal she reached with Colorado authorities who discipline lawyers for misconduct.

Ellis’s lawyers agreed with prosecutors that the offense she admitted to Tuesday was not “a crime of moral turpitude.” That agreement, which is also a part of the guilty pleas by the other Trump-affiliated lawyers, could help them avoid disbarment or other serious action against their law licenses.

A lawyer for Trump said the prosecution’s willingness to drop the racketeering charge and agree to probation for Ellis undercuts the existing indictment.

“What that shows is this so-called RICO case is nothing more than a bargaining chip for Willis,” the lawyer, Steve Sadow, said in a statement, referring to the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Sadow also noted that the charge to which Ellis pleaded guilty “doesn’t even mention President Trump.”

Ellis was a prominent figure in Trump’s orbit in the chaotic weeks following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election. Though she didn’t appear in any Trump campaign litigation, she was a fixture alongside Giuliani as they pressed state lawmakers to credit the claims of election fraud that Ellis now says she no longer believes.

Ellis also played a role in efforts to press then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count Biden’s presidential electors. She drafted memos that were circulated among Trump allies supporting Pence’s authority to sidestep existing laws and simply decline to open envelopes containing Biden’s electoral votes.

A prosecutor on the case said in court Tuesday that Ellis didn’t do what she needed to do to check the accuracy of the information presented at a Dec. 3, 2020, Georgia Senate hearing and similar proceedings elsewhere in the country.

“The false statements were made with reckless disregard of the truth and with conspicuous disregard of the truth and with conspicuous purpose to avoid learning the truth,” prosecutor Daysha Young said.

Four of Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case have now reached plea deals with prosecutors: Ellis, Powell, Chesebro and a bail bondsman named Scott Hall, who was involved in a post-election breach of voting equipment in Coffee County, Ga.

I wonder how many of Trump's co-defendants started plea negotiations after seeing the previous two lawyers avoid jail time.

[Gandalf]

At that point it's like an unfolding prisoner's dilemma. If nobody talks, then the case is a lot harder to prosecute. But once the first person flips, it's massively advantageous to flip on the remaining defendants. The trick is to get ahead of people and have something new for the prosecutors.

[Solauren]

At this point, I think the everyone but Rudy Giulian and Trump himself are going to flip. Really, it's the safest course of action for them. Small fine and no jail time? Big deal.

[Rogue 9]

At this point, I think the everyone but Rudy Giulian and Trump himself are going to flip. Really, it's the safest course of action for them. Small fine and no jail time? Big deal.

A felony conviction means they can't practice law, which isn't nothing, but beats jail time.

[Solauren]

Isn't there any way to have that reversed?

[bilateralrope]

At that point it's like an unfolding prisoner's dilemma. If nobody talks, then the case is a lot harder to prosecute. But once the first person flips, it's massively advantageous to flip on the remaining defendants. The trick is to get ahead of people and have something new for the prosecutors.

With the added complication that the case already looks strong. Especially against some defendants.

Also there is the Federal Jan 6 case, which might be planning to indict other people after Jack Smith is finished with Trump. I don't think these agreements cover those, but any testimony given to Georgia will be used there.

At this point, I think the everyone but Rudy Giulian and Trump himself are going to flip. Really, it's the safest course of action for them. Small fine and no jail time? Big deal.

A felony conviction means they can't practice law, which isn't nothing, but beats jail time.

From the article:

Ellis’s lawyers agreed with prosecutors that the offense she admitted to Tuesday was not “a crime of moral turpitude.” That agreement, which is also a part of the guilty pleas by the other Trump-affiliated lawyers, could help them avoid disbarment or other serious action against their law licenses.

It looks like they get to continue to practise law. But only if they can find people willing to hire them.

[LadyTevar]

From the article:

Ellis’s lawyers agreed with prosecutors that the offense she admitted to Tuesday was not “a crime of moral turpitude.” That agreement, which is also a part of the guilty pleas by the other Trump-affiliated lawyers, could help them avoid disbarment or other serious action against their law licenses.

It looks like they get to continue to practise law. But only if they can find people willing to hire them.

Yes, that's a really nice bait to dangle in front of the lawyers. "Ok... we'll not charge you with anything that will Disbar you, so you can keep your job."
I'm not surprised they're jumping for it. Their practice is worth more than Trump's promises.

[Solauren]

From the article:

Ellis’s lawyers agreed with prosecutors that the offense she admitted to Tuesday was not “a crime of moral turpitude.” That agreement, which is also a part of the guilty pleas by the other Trump-affiliated lawyers, could help them avoid disbarment or other serious action against their law licenses.

It looks like they get to continue to practise law. But only if they can find people willing to hire them.

Yes, that's a really nice bait to dangle in front of the lawyers. "Ok... we'll not charge you with anything that will Disbar you, so you can keep your job."
I'm not surprised they're jumping for it. Their practice is worth more than Trump's promises.

Given Trumps reputation of not paying alot of his bills, that may be quite literally correct.

[bilateralrope]

Mark Meadows sued by book publisher over false election claims

BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 11/03/23 3:58 PM ET

The publisher of Mark Meadows’s book is suing the former White House chief of staff, arguing in court filings Friday morning that he violated an agreement with All Seasons Press by including false statements about former President Trump’s claims surrounding the 2020 election.

“Meadows, the former White House Chief of Staff under President Donald J. Trump, promised and represented that ‘all statements contained in the Work are true and based on reasonable research for accuracy’ and that he ‘has not made any misrepresentations to the Publisher about the Work,’” the publishing company writes in its suit, filed in court in Sarasota County, Fla.

“Meadows breached those warranties causing ASP to suffer significant monetary and reputational damage when the media widely reported … that he warned President Trump against claiming that election fraud corrupted the electoral votes cast in the 2020 Presidential Election and that neither he nor former President Trump actually believed such claims.”

The suit comes after ABC News reported that Meadows received immunity to testify before a grand jury convened to hear evidence from special counsel Jack Smith, reportedly contradicting statements he made in his book.

Meadows’s book, “The Chief’s Chief,” was published in 2021 and spends ample time reflecting on the election.

“Meadows’ reported statements to the Special Prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his Book, one central theme of which is that President Trump was the true winner of the 2020 Presidential Election and that election was ‘stolen’ and ‘rigged’ with the help from ‘allies in the liberal media,’ who ignored ‘actual evidence of fraud,’” the company writes in the filing.

According to Meadows’s testimony, as reported by ABC News, Trump was being “dishonest” with voters when he claimed victory on election night. ABC reported that Meadows admitted Trump lost the election when questioned by prosecutors.

He also told prosecutors he has yet to see any fraud in the 2020 election that would shift Trump’s loss to President Biden, ABC reported.

The suit notes that the opening sentence to one chapter in Meadows’s book was, “I KNEW HE DIDN’T LOSE.”

The company is asking for the $350,000 it paid Meadows as an advance for the book, $600,000 in out-of-pocket damages, and at least $1 million each for reputational damage suffered by the company and loss of expected profits for the book, which they argue plummeted given Meadows’s involvement in numerous investigations regarding Jan. 6.

The suit reveals a long and tense relationship between Meadows and his publisher, which has published a suite of books from conservative figures.

In December 2021, All Seasons Press sent a letter to Meadows saying it would withhold the final of three $116,666 advance payments over concerns his book may contain false information. The suit also notes it planned to continue with publication “pending an investigation.”

A few days later the company got a letter from attorney Blake Meadows, whom the suit says is Meadows’s son, demanding the final installment.

“Mr. Meadows is aware of the specious allegations that were published regarding a portion of the book which was taken out of context, and which have already been addressed by both Mr. Meadows and former President Trump in multiple press releases,” Blake Meadows wrote, according to the suit.

All Seasons Press said it decided to publish the book “after conducting the appropriate due diligence and based upon repeated assurances from Meadows that facts in the Book were true.”

But it argues that as “rumors circulated in the media” that Meadows could be a cooperating witness with prosecutors, the book’s bottom line was harmed.

“As a result, public interest in the Book, the truth of which was increasingly in doubt, precipitously declined, and ASP sold only approximately 60,000 of the 200,000 first printing of the Book,” the suit states.

A request for comment made to Meadow’s attorney in the election interference case was not immediately returned, nor was a message left with Blake Meadows.

Meadows has previously suggested portions of his book were inaccurate, including a detail about how Trump tested positive for COVID-19 days before his first debate against now-President Biden.

Trump denied the claim and called it “fake news,” which led Meadows to say during an interview in December 2021 that the claim from his own book was “fake news.”

Meadows has not been charged in the federal government’s election interference case, but he has been charged in a sprawling racketeering and election law case in Georgia.

All I can do is laugh at this development.

[Solauren]

Mark Meadows is now in a rather interesting scenario.

On one hand, if he stays with the co-operation deal, he's getting hit by that lawsuit. Shielding from criminal charges almost always does nothing for civil suits.

On the other hand, if he breaks the co-op deal to try to avoid the civil suit, well, odds are the people he made that deal with will do everything they can do completely and utterly destroy him. And then when he's convicted, the civil suit will just be on the basis of conviction vs his own testimony.

If I was Meadows, I'd just cut a new book deal; "Why I flipped" with the publisher.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Donald Trump begins giving testimony in New York civil fraud trial

Donald Trump has started giving testimony in his civil fraud trial in which he is accused of exaggerating his net worth to help secure loans and business deals.

The former US president, who has previously denied any wrongdoing and called the trial a politically motivated "sham", arrived at the New York Supreme Court on Monday morning.

During the opening session, Mr Trump's lawyers were told to get control of their client, with Judge Arthur Engeron saying: "We don't have time to waste. We have one day to do this."

Mr Trump sought to defend himself by downplaying the role he had in preparing and assessing his annual financial statements, which he is accused of inflating.

He said: "All I did was authorise and tell people to give whatever is necessary for the accountants to do the statements."

The former US president, like his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr, also looked to absolve himself of any blame by claiming that disclaimers on his financial statements should have alerted people relying on the documents to carry out their own due diligence.

"Banks didn't find them very relevant, and they had a disclaimer clause - you would call it a worthless statement clause," he added.

Eric Trump told reporters last Friday that his father was "very fired up" to provide his own account.

Donald Trump told reporters he was looking forward to testifying as he arrived at the New York Supreme Court

Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are also listed within the lawsuit that has been brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Her lawsuit accuses Donald Trump of exaggerating his personal wealth for years on financial statements that were given to banks and insurers to help secure loans and business deals.

Last month, the former president was fined for failing to remove a disparaging post on his campaign website about a court clerk involved in his civil fraud trial, after he was ordered to delete it weeks beforehand.

His lawyers had claimed at the time that the "very large machine" of his campaign to return to the White House was to blame as opposed to the 77-year-old himself.

[LadyTevar]

Trump to remain on Colorado Ballot

A judge in Colorado has rejected an attempt to bar former President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 Republican presidential primary.
It ends a landmark trial over a lawsuit that argued Mr Trump's actions leading up to the 2021 Capitol riot render him ineligible to hold office again.
Similar challenges, based on a US Civil War-era constitutional amendment, have also failed in three other states.

Mr Trump, who did not appear at the hearing, has dismissed the effort.

District Judge Sarah Wallace issued the ruling on Friday, requiring that the Colorado secretary of state place Mr Trump on the state's primary ballot next year.

Section three of the 14th Amendment bars from office those who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection" against it.A group of Colorado voters filed a legal challenge in September, arguing the amendment should apply to Mr Trump and his involvement in the 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

But Ms Wallace disagreed, arguing in her ruling that the 14th amendment's insurrection ban does not apply to presidents because Section 3 does not explicitly name them.
"After considering the arguments on both sides, the Court is persuaded that 'officers of the United States,' did not include the President of the United States."
"(I)t appears to the court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section Three did not intend to include a person who had only taken the presidential oath," she wrote in her ruling.

Ms Wallace did find, however, that Mr Trump "engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 through incitement, and that the First Amendment does not protect Trump's speech".

The ruling is the latest setback for efforts to disqualify Mr Trump from the Republican primary election.

Similar lawsuits in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have already failed.

So. Section 3 of Amendment 14 doesn't EXPLICITLY NAME the President as one of those who can be banned for "engaging in insurrection".

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The accused can't be a Senator. Can't be a Representative in Congress. Cannot be an ELECTOR of the President/Vice President (aka member of the Electorial College who technically casts the votes from each State).

What this boils down to is the judges are not wanting to take that step of including the President as "any office civil or Military under the United States"

[Batman]

How is the presidency NOT?

[LadyTevar]

How is the presidency NOT?

Because it isn't SPECIFICALLY NAMED, obviously.

[Lost Soal]

Because they bought his BS semantics argument that the law bars anyone who hat taken an oath to "Support" the constitution while his oath was to "Defend" it. Two completely different oaths don't you know.
They all refuse to hold him accountable until someone higher up the chain does it for them.

[Batman]

I must have missed the part where it says 'ANY' office civil or military EXCEPT the presidency. Any seems a pretty inclusive term.