Former US President Donald Trump attends the Trump Organisation civil fraud trial, in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, US, Oct 25, 2023.Donald Trump should be disqualified from Colorado's ballot in next year's election because he "incited a violent mob" in Washington on Jan 6, 2021, an advocacy group lawyer argued at the opening of a trial on Monday .
Then-president Trump spent weeks before the Jan 6 riot spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud in his November 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and encouraging his supporters to rally in Washington. He then encouraged them to march on the US Capitol where Congress was certifying Biden's win. Only after hours of violence did he appeal to the rioters to go home.
Colorado is regarded as safely Democratic by nonpartisan election forecasters, so regardless of whether Trump is on the ballot, President Biden is expected to win the state. "I feared that if Republicans were going to continue to challenge the outcome, the mob would return and the scene on the floor could become combustible," Swalwell said.
The Colorado lawsuit seeks to bar the state's top election official from putting Trump on the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which was established in the aftermath of the Civil War to prevent former Confederate rebels from taking federal office.