An attorney in Venice, California, filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday to bar former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary election, arguing that he is disqualified due to his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to a report.
The lawsuit argues that the Fourteenth Amendment states that no one can hold office who has previously taken an oath of office to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave aid to those who did, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
The attorney, Stephen Yagman, filed the lawsuit on behalf of a California voter identified as “A.W. Clark.”
Yagman argues the language in the Constitution “speaks for itself.”
“There is only one issue that would need to be litigated potentially, and that issue is did Trump engage in insurrection or rebellion…I think the answer to that question for anyone who has eyesight is that he did,” he claims.
Yagman, according to the Times, was disbarred and served 29 months in federal prison after being convicted in 2007 for tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud, and money laundering, but his law license was later reinstated.
Yagman filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D).
Democrats are seeking to file similar lawsuits across the country before the 2024 primaries begin. According to the Times, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit last week to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado, and an Obama-appointed judge in Florida dismissed a similar effort in August, saying that the plaintiffs lacked standing.
NBC News reached out to chief election officers in all 50 states and D.C., reporting, “Most are choosing not to weigh in on whether the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment applies here.”
“I don’t think it’s the role of the secretary of state to make a judicial determination,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, told the outlet.
“My job is to create the process and the environment in the state of Missouri where candidates can run and the voters of the state of Missouri have the accessibility, the elections have security and credibility, so that the people of the state can make a decision,” he added.
The Fourteenth Amendment provision was aimed at former backers of the Confederacy.
Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social:
The group suing me in Colorado to ridiculously try and Unconstitutionally keep me off the ballot (I am leading against DeSanctimonious by almost 50 points, and beating Crooked Joe, BIG!), is TRUMP DERANGED “CREW,” composed of many slime balls & groups like Norm Eisen through Brookings or Just Security, Andrew Weissmann, Joyce Vance, et al. They are, perhaps illegally, working with Weissmann acolyte Lisa Monaco at “Injustice.” I have been beating them for years, including Impeachments. MAGA!!!
He also said, during a recent interview with radio show host Dan Bongino, “This is like a banana republic.”
“And what they’re doing is, it’s called election interference. … Now the 14th Amendment is just a continuation of that,” he said.
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