US watchdog group sues to keep Donald Trump off 2024 presidential ballot

A lawsuit has been filed to keep Donald Trump’s name off the 2024 presidential ballot, as the former president revealed he wants to face-off with Meghan Markle.

A government watchdog group has filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot after he violated his oath of office by engaging in an insurrection.

The lawsuit, filed in Colorado by the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), rests on an amendment to the US Constitution.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment stops anyone from holding public office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after once pledging to support and defend the Constitution.

Acting on behalf of six Colorado voters, CREW petitioned elections officials in the western state to keep Mr Trump off the ballot in next year’s presidential election.

A government watchdog group has filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. Picture: AFP

“Donald Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the suit says.

“His efforts culminated on January 6, 2021, when he incited, exacerbated, and otherwise engaged in a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol.

“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.”

Similar legal efforts to bar Mr Trump from the ballot using the 14th Amendment are underway in several other states and could ultimately land at the US Supreme Court, where conservatives make up a 6-3 majority.

Mr Trump is to go on trial in Washington in March on charges. Picture: AFP

According to CREW, eight public officials have been disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment since 1868 but only one in recent times, a New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Mr Trump is to go on trial in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the November 2020 election results.

He faces similar charges in a separate case in the southern state of Georgia.

The 77-year-old was impeached for a second time by the House of Representatives after the Capitol riot – he was charged with inciting an insurrection – but was acquitted by the Senate.

Former US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

TRUMP WANTS TO DEBATE MEGHAN

It comes as Mr Trump said he wants to debate Meghan Markle because he doesn’t like the way she treated the late Queen.

Speaking on US radio, Mr Trump claimed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “disrespectful” to the Queen when they decided to step down from their roles as senior working royals in 2020.

“I didn’t like the way she dealt with the Queen,” he said.

“They treated her with great disrespect and I didn’t like it.”

Mr Trump previously met the Queen when he was president during his three-day state visit to the UK in 2019.

Donald Trump has routinely lashed out at Meghan Markle but she has kept silent despite his repeated attacks. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump claimed that he became very friendly with the Queen, who was 93 at the time, and took the opportunity to criticise his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden.

But it is worth noting he broke royal etiquette when he walked in front of the Queen as the two inspected the Queen’s Guard.

“She was an incredible woman. She was so sharp, she was 100 per cent,” Mr Trump said. “When you watch Biden, you say this is a different planet.”

Mr Trump went on to say that he “disagrees so much” with what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “are doing,” possibly in reference to the bombshell claims the couple has made about the royal family in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, and their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.

Donald Trump met with the Queen in 2019. Picture: Getty Images

“I think it’s not a good situation going on with the two of them, but I didn’t know that they don’t like me. Somebody mentioned it might be possible. They wouldn’t be the only ones,” Mr Trump added.

“If you want to set it up, let’s set it up. I’d love to debate her.”

This isn’t the first time Mr Trump has spoken about Ms Markle.

During an interview with Nigel Farage in May, he again called the Duchess of Sussex “very disrespectful” to the Queen.

“I think she [Meghan] has been very disrespectful to the Queen,” Mr Trump said.

“How can you be so disrespectful to the Queen?

Donald Trump called the late Queen “incredible”. Picture: Getty Images

“She was incredible, for decades and decades she never made a mistake,” he said.
“I cannot think of a mistake she made, she was never controversial.”

“She went through years and decades without controversy. You cannot be disrespectful to her and I think Meghan was very disrespectful to her, very disrespectful.”

He again took aim at Ms Markle in an interview with Piers Morgan last year, in which he claimed that the mother of two is leading Prince Harry “by the nose”.

During an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Mr Trump said that the royal couple’s marriage was a ticking time bomb, which will blow up when “Harry decides he’s had enough of being bossed around”.

The former president also said that Ms Markle might leave the royal “when she decides that she likes some other guy better”.

“I’m not a fan of Meghan, and I wasn’t from the beginning. Poor Harry is being led around by his nose. And I think he’s an embarrassment,” he was quoted as saying.

TRUMP MAY HAVE VIOLATED COPYRIGHT LAW

Donald Trump may have violated United States copyright law by selling merchandise with his history-making mugshot, legal experts warn.

The former president’s campaign said within a few days of his surrender in Georgia they made nearly $A11 million thanks to the iconic photo taken of him at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, as he scowled into the camera.

Merchandise emblazoned with the historic mugshot, which included T-shirts, mugs, koozies and bumper stickers, and had the slogan “Never surrender” was quickly sold for between $A19 and $A53.

Donald Trump merchandise for sale online since he was booked and photographed in Fulton County Sheriff's Office on August 24, 2023.

However, legal experts now say that the money made from the items may rightfully belong to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which took the photo, as US copyright law specifies that the law enforcement agency that takes a mugshot is the legal owner of it.

They also said the Trump campaign didn’t make any alterations to the mugshot, so he cannot claim that he substantially altered it from its original in a way to create something new.

“You’re prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorisation,” Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law Professor Betsy Rosenblatt told Spectrum News 1 Ohio.

Donald Trump merchandise for sale online since he was booked & photographed in Fulton County Sheriff's Office on August 24, 2023

“You’re prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorisation, or that is to say distributing anything that isn’t the one copy you already lawfully have, and various other things.

“Making a public display of it, making a public performance of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here.”

The Trump campaign appeared to be aware of the potential legal violation, after one of Mr Trump’s top advisers Chris LaCivita tweeted on Aug. 24: “If you are a campaign, PAC, scammer and you [are] try raising money off the mugshot of @realDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission … We are coming after you will not scam donors.”

But despite the possible legal violations, it would ultimately be up to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to decide whether to sue the Trump campaign and any others that have used the mugshot for financial gain.

CAPITOL RIOTER GETS 22-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE

It comes as the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys militia, Enrique Tarrio, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 2021 attack on the US capital.

“That day broke our previously unbroken tradition of peacefully transferring power,” US District Judge Timothy Kelly said during a nearly four-hour sentencing hearing in the nation’s capital.

Prosecutors had sought a 33-year prison term for Tarrio, who was not in Washington on January 6, 2021 but was accused of directing the military-style assault on the Capitol by members of the Proud Boys.

The 39-year-old and several other members of the Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy in May for their roles in the attempt to stop congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Donald Trump.

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, former leader of The Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. Picture: AFP

Another member of the Proud Boys, Ethan Nordean, 32, received an 18-year prison sentence from Judge Kelly last week.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of another far-right militia central to the Capitol siege, the Oath Keepers, was also sentenced to 18 years in prison earlier this year.

Tarrio addressed the court before the sentence was handed down and said January 6 was a “national embarrassment.”

“My candidate lost,” he said. “I persisted when I should have calmed.”

Tarrio, who appeared to choke up on several occasions, apologised to members of law enforcement who were attacked by rioters on what he called a “horrible day.”

“I failed miserably,” he said. “This trial has humbled me.”

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe, arguing for the 33-year prison term, said Tarrio and the other members of the Proud Boys “tried to use force and violence to try and impose their view of what was right for the country.”

“It was Mr Tarrio with the assistance of his co-defendants who put this group together,” Mulroe said.

TRUMP TRIAL IN MARCH

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described Tarrio as a “savvy propagandist” and said that while he was not physically present in Washington on January 6 he “did far more harm than he could have as an individual rioter.”

Tarrio had acted as a “general rather than a soldier,” they said.

“The only reason Tarrio did not march alongside the others is because he was arrested upon his arrival in Washington DC and placed under a court order to leave the District,” they added.

The assault on Congress left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured and followed a fiery speech by Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the election.

More than 1100 people have been charged by the Justice Department in the Capitol attack.

Some 630 of them have pleaded guilty to various charges, and 110 have been found guilty at trial.

Originally published as US watchdog group sues to keep Donald Trump off 2024 presidential ballot