(NewsSpace.com) – Former President Donald Trump is currently facing many legal woes. In addition to 91 felony charges and a number of civil lawsuits, Watchdog groups are seeking to remove him from several state primary ballots.
The longer-term goal of these organizations is to keep Trump far away from the presidential elections in 2024. As of this week, such attempts have been widely unsuccessful – which may be due, in part, to the surprising movements of his legal counselors. Most recently, Trump’s legal team aired an argument in court that raised more eyebrows than usual.
In Colorado, the State Supreme Court has agreed to hear the argument filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), claiming that the former president is ineligible to run for office again because he violated the 14th Amendment with his actions on January 6, 2021.
In their appeal, Trump’s attorneys made an interesting rejoinder, stating that when Trump took office and was inaugurated he didn’t agree to “support” the US Constitution. Rather, at his swearing-in, they said Donald Trump took an oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the ruling document.
Further, Trump’s legal team says that Section Three of the 14th Amendment doesn’t actually include the presidential role, because it’s “not an office under the United States” and that it was left out “purposefully” by the document’s framers, according to Newsweek. Both sides will have an opportunity to present their oral arguments on December 6 in front of the state’s High Court.
Naturally, this move has been scrutinized on social media, with many speaking out, claiming the argument is absurd. However, as Eric Lisann, a former state and federal prosecutor, pointed out: the former president “made that exact same argument to the Colorado trial judge” and it was “the only argument the judge agreed with [Trump] on.”
The argument begs the question as to whether his lack of support for the Constitution, as implied by his attorneys’ argument, will hurt his popularity and trust among American voters. For his part, Trump still has a lot of support from Republicans around the country. In fact, he’s leading the primary polls by dozens of percentage points. As of November 30, FiveThirtyEight polls showed he was sitting at 60%, 47.4% ahead of his closest competitor Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who has 12.6%.
Copyright 2023, NewsSpace.com
