BOSTON (AP) 鈥� Five Republican and Democratic voters in Massachusetts have become the claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The challenge was filed late Thursday to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin鈥檚 office ahead of the March 5 presidential primary.
The State Ballot Commission must rule on the challenge by Jan. 29. It came a day before the said Friday it will decide whether Trump can be kept off the ballot. The court agreed to take up Trump鈥檚 appeal of a case from Colorado stemming from his role in the events that culminated in on the U.S. Capitol.
The Massachusetts challenge, similar to those filed in more than a dozen other states, relies on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits anyone from holding office who previously has taken an oath to defend the Constitution and then later 鈥渆ngaged in insurrection or rebellion鈥� against the country or given 鈥渁id or comfort鈥� to its enemies.
In its 91-page objection, the voters made the case that Trump should be disqualified from the presidency because he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol Jan. 6 to intimidate Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence. It also says he 鈥渞eveled in, and deliberately refused to stop, the insurrection" and cites Trump's efforts to overturn the election illegally.
鈥淒onald Trump violated his oath of office and incited a violent insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol, threatened the assassination of the Vice President and congressional leaders, and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation鈥檚 history,鈥� wrote Ron Fein, legal director at Free Speech For People, which has spearheaded efforts to keep Trump off the ballot. 鈥淥ur predecessors understood that oath-breaking insurrectionists will do it again, and worse, if allowed back into power, so they enacted the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause to protect the republic from people like Trump."
The Massachusetts Republican Party responded to the challenge on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying it opposed this effort to remove Trump by 鈥渁dministrative fiat.鈥�
鈥淲e believe that disqualification of a presidential candidate through legal maneuverings sets a dangerous precedent for democracy,鈥� the group wrote. 鈥淒emocracy demands that voters be the ultimate arbiter of suitability for office.鈥�
Officials in Colorado and Maine have already banned Trump鈥檚 name from primary election ballots.
Along with challenging the Colorado ruling, Trump has by Maine鈥檚 secretary of state barring him from the state鈥檚 primary ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Michael Casey, The Associated Press
