Wyoming’s Secretary of State Chuck Gray is working to rectify a Colorado choose’s ruling that labeled former President Trump an “insurrectionist” in an election case the Wyoming Republican argued ought to have been dismissed from the beginning.
“As chief election officials of our states, [Secretaries of State] have to stand up for the electoral process in our republic, and this is pivotal to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Gray informed Fox News Digital in a cellphone interview.
“I ran on election integrity, and that’s why the people of Wyoming voted me into office. And I’m following through on that, and defending the truth here, and making sure that these outrageous, frivolous lawsuits that the radical left is bringing and trying to remove President Trump from the ballot, that they don’t succeed.”
Gray filed an amicus curiae temporary, in any other case referred to as a pal of the court docket temporary, with the Colorado Supreme Court final week that argues a Colorado District Court made a mistake when labeling Trump an “insurrectionist” in a authorized case that labored to take away Trump’s identify from the state’s major poll. Gray was joined by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in submitting the temporary.
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Republican Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray. (Wyoming Secretary of State )
The amicus temporary calls on the Colorado Supreme Court to vacate the district court docket’s order and “direct the District Court to dismiss the petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
“It really should have been dismissed immediately, the case is frivolous. And instead we got this 95-page finding from this local judge there in Colorado and with the principle of issue preclusion, this could be really used against President Trump,” Gray mentioned. “So it’s very important that this is just dismissed in its entirety. And that’s what we really try to delve into with this amicus brief … and we’re really proud that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Ohio Secretary of State LaRose signed on.”
A bunch of Colorado voters introduced forth a lawsuit earlier this yr arguing Trump ought to be deemed ineligible from holding political workplace underneath a Civil War-era revolt clause, and his identify ought to thus be barred from showing on the 2024 poll. The group claimed that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, violated a clause within the 14th Amendment that stops anybody who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” in opposition to the Constitution from holding political workplace.
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Former President Trump waves to the group on the sector throughout halftime within the Palmetto Bowl between Clemson and South Carolina at Williams Brice Stadium on Nov. 25, 2023 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Colorado District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace rejected the group’s calls final month to take away Trump’s identify from the state’s major poll however dominated that Trump engaged in an revolt on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was nonetheless president. The choose argued that there was a dearth of proof exhibiting Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to presidential candidates.
“The Court holds there is scant direct evidence regarding whether the Presidency is one of the positions subject to disqualification,” she wrote.
Gray informed Fox News Digital the case ought to have been dismissed from the get-go, not to mention the choose continuing with the go well with and ruling Trump engaged in an revolt.
“The frivolous lawsuits, they’re happening around the country, and it’s imperative that voters in one state not be affected by judgments in other states. And if you think about it, preventing an eligible candidate in one state for being able to attain electoral votes affects every other state. And preventing a candidate from being on the ballot, primary or caucus, artificially will alter momentum,” Gray mentioned.
Gray defined to Fox News Digital that the Colorado choose admitted the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack’s report into proof throughout proceedings, which he says was a congressional committee mired in bias regardless of being categorized as “bipartisan.”
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“Republican leadership, which was the minority party at the time, had no appointments to the January 6 Committee report. And that was a large part of the 95 pages that the local judge there considered … so that’s the other thing that we contest in this is: the inclusion of the January 6 Commission report. I believe it was biased from the start,” Gray mentioned.
The temporary outlines in a footnote that the 2 Republicans who served on the committee, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, now not serve in Congress.
Then-Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., provides her opening remarks because the House choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public listening to to disclose the findings of a yearlong investigation on the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“It should be noted that while the January 6th Committee originally boasted two House republicans among its membership, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, neither have remained in the House of Representatives, Kinzinger having chosen not to run for reelection, and Cheney having been overwhelmingly voted out of office by the people of Wyoming,” the footnote states.
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The temporary’s textual content argued that Republicans, the minority celebration on the time of the committee’s inception, “did not have any appointees” to the committee, and argued the report has more and more proven its bias “as more security camera footage of January 6th continues to be released to the general public.”
Then-President Trump supporters occupy the West Front of the Capitol and the inauguration stands on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc by way of Getty Images)
Gray argued the Colorado case, and related ones in different states comparable to Minnesota, are “weaponizing” the 14th Amendment to silence conservatives.
“That is a very troubling trend in our country and it’s something as Wyoming Secretary of State, a public official, it’s very important that we weigh in on the weaponization of American law, the weaponization of the 14th Amendment against the left’s political opponents. And that’s what they’re doing, the left is targeting their political opponents with the way they’ve weaponized law. We’ve seen that with these indictments and then also the way they’ve weaponized the 14th Amendment. It’s really an outrageous, unprecedented full court press by the radical left to weaponize law in this country and this is another example of it,” he mentioned.
According to the Pew Research Center, 64% of Jewish voters within the U.S. establish themselves as Democrats or left leaning, whereas solely 26% think about themselves to be Republicans or proper leaning. (Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket by way of Getty Image)
Gray mentioned he hopes that Democrats, no matter whether or not they dislike Trump’s political stances, perceive that weaponizing American legislation units a precedent that “could be used against anyone in the United States.”
“The radical left has just become so consumed by this Trump derangement syndrome. And this is just another example of it. But I certainly hope and pray deep down, that they see why this is wrong. And today it’s conservative Republicans and President Trump, but this is a precedent that could be used against anyone in the United States, and we as conservatives must stand up for the truth. And that’s what we’re doing with this amicus brief,” he mentioned.
Former President Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to help native candidates on Sept. 3, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The Wyoming Republican’s amicus curiae submitting shouldn’t be the primary time he has taken motion to name out what he describes as a “disgusting strategy of election interference,” offering Fox News Digital with a letter he despatched Republican New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan in September. There had been related efforts in New Hampshire to invoke the 14th Amendment to bar Trump’s identify from showing on the poll, which Scanlan in the end rejected.
“The weaponization of the 14th Amendment with frivolous lawsuits like the one in Colorado, it just undermines the entire election process. And that’s why we’re doing this,” Gray mentioned.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/top-wyoming-official-slams-brakes-court-labeling-trump-insurrectionist-outrageous
