DENVER (AP) — The Colorado judge overseeing the lawsuit attempting to bar former President Donald Trump from The White House using a rare constitutional clause has issued an order prohibiting threats and intimidation regarding the case.
District Court Judge Sarah Block Wallace said Friday she was doing so for the safety of those involved in the case, including her and her own staff.
The lawyers suing to disqualify Trump under a Civil War-era clause of the 14th Amendment noted that the federal prosecutor leading the criminal case against Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election last week sought a gag order on the former president for threatening witnesses, lawyers and the judge in that case.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver earlier this month, petitions that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold bar Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who has taken an oath of office from holding public office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States, unless they are granted amnesty by a majority of Congress.
The petitioners in the lawsuit, a group of voters from Colorado — most of them Republican — claim Trump made plans to “cast doubt on and undermine confidence in our nation’s election infrastructure” and knowingly sought to subvert the U.S. Constitution and system of elections through a “sustained campaign of lies” that led to the events of January 6, “when he incited, exacerbated, and otherwise engaged in a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol by a mob who believed they were following his orders” as he allegedly tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Because Trump took these actions after he swore an oath to support the Constitution, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits him from being President and from qualifying for the Colorado ballot for President in 2024,” the lawsuit reads.
Trump has yet to be charged in connection with these allegations.
The former president is facing similar lawsuits in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota, in addition to four indictments handed this year alone, which are currently moving through the court system.
He is accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia and Washington, D.C.; of hoarding classified documents he took with him to Florida after leaving the White House; and of falsifying business records related to hush money paid on his behalf in Manhattan. Some of Trump’s criminal trials are scheduled to overlap with the presidential primary season, according to the Associated Press.
The Colorado lawsuit could go before a judge as soon as October 30, according to CPR News.