Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) informed former President Donald Trump in a letter Thursday that they intend to seek his “disqualification” if he announces his presidential bid for the 2024 election.
CREW, an ethics watchdog group that uses “aggressive legal action” to hold government officials accountable, asserted Trump should be disqualified from serving public office for his actions during the January 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, referencing the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Noah Bookbinder, president of CREW, said in a release that the organization’s message for the former president is “clear.”
“If you seek office despite being disqualified under the Constitution for engaging in insurrection, we and others loyal to the Constitution will defend it,” Bookbinder said.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Thursday that the former president will likely announce his 2024 presidential bid shortly after the midterm elections next week.
CREW’s argument against Trump is based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars any official who has “taken an oath” to protect the Constitution from engaging “in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Trump, when sworn into office in January 2017, “swore a sacred oath” to defend the Constitution, Bookbinder wrote in his letter to the former president.
“By summoning a violent mob to disrupt the transition of presidential power mandated by the Constitution after having sworn to defend the same, you made yourself ineligible to hold public office again,” read the document.
A New Mexico county official was removed from public office in September under the 14th Amendment for his involvement in the January 6 attack.
CREW, along with several New Mexico-based law firms, represented residents in a lawsuit against former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, which demanded that Griffin be removed for participating in several “Stop the Steal” rallies prior to January 6 and for breaching the Capitol on the day of the riot.
In his decision, State District Court Judge Francis Mathew wrote that Griffin engaged in the insurrection even if he hadn’t “personally engaged in violence” during the breach, reported Politico.
“By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr. Griffin contributed to delaying Congress‘s election-certification proceedings,” Mathew wrote.
The judge’s ruling was the first time a court officially ruled the January 6 riot as an insurrection.
Trump has been ordered to appear before the House Select committee investigating the January 6 riot after the panel unanimously agreed that the former president was “required to answer for his actions.” According to panel Chairman Bennie Thomas, the group “left no doubt—none—that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6.”
Although Trump has not publicly stated that he will comply with the committee’s subpoena, Politico reported last week that his attorneys have agreed to formally accept the order. Trump has until Friday to present documents to the committee and must appear for a deposition by November 14, although, Politico wrote, neither deadline is “likely to hold.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press team for comment.
