Republican Lawmaker to Testify for Trump in Trial That Could Force Former President Off Ballot

Former President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd during a campaign rally in Summerville, S.C., on Sept. 25, 2023. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) announced on Tuesday that he will be testifying in defense of former President Donald Trump in a Colorado lawsuit that threatens to kick him off the 2024 primary ballot.

Mr. Nehls said in a post on X that he will be serving as a fact witness for President Trump’s defense in a lawsuit in Colorado that is pursuing a novel legal theory under the 14th Amendment that seeks to disqualify the former president from the ballot based on the claim that he participated in an “insurrection.”

Calling the Colorado trial a “sham,” Mr. Nehls said that he was at the doors on Jan. 6, “face to face with protesters, and I know firsthand there was NO INSURRECTION.”

“This sham trial is clear election interference, and it has no basis in fact. I look forward to providing my eyewitness account of that,” added Mr. Nehls, who served for nearly 30 years in law enforcement before entering politics.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) speaks with reporters after the House Republicans meeting securing the GOP nomination for House Speaker in Washington on Oct. 11, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Besides serving as an officer and elected sheriff, Mr. Nehls also served for 21 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, experience that would further inform his take on whether what happened on Jan. 6 was an insurrection, as many of his opponents have claimed.

Mr. Nehls was also one of the 147 Republicans who on Jan. 6, 2021, voted against certifying the electoral votes for then president-elect Joe Biden.

President Trump was acquitted on a second impeachment charge that he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and no criminal charges of “insurrection” have ever been brought against him.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald J. Trump arrives at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Nev., on Oct. 28, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Mr. Nehls previously said that he believed that the National Guard was delayed in arriving at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving had been waiting for guidance from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It’s almost like there were individuals within the current administration that wanted this to happen,” Mr. Nehls told Just The News in an interview last December. “All the intelligence was there, and what did they have? What did they have? They had bicycle racks. … A bicycle rack couldn’t keep your cat in your yard.”

14th Amendment Lawsuit

The trial underway in Colorado stems from one of the many lawsuits brought against President Trump, arguing that he should be barred from holding office under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

It was brought by the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington representing six voters in Colorado, who are arguing that the former president took part in an “insurrection,” thus disqualifying him from holding elected office, according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War, and it conferred citizenship and equal rights to all people born or naturalized in the United States, with the intention of protecting the rights of all former slaves.

The amendment includes a section that barred those who had engaged in “insurrections or rebellions” against the nation from holding office, unless they had two-thirds approval from Congress.

Some states have already dismissed 14th Amendment cases arguing that President Trump should be kept off the ballot, and additional cases may be brought forth at a later time. Besides Colorado, a similar trial begins this week in Minnesota on Nov. 2.

The plaintiffs in the case sued Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, arguing that she was illegally keeping President Trump on the state’s primary ballot.

Ms. Griswold responded with a statement, saying that Colorado’s law is unclear in terms of eligibility and welcoming adjudication.

“I look forward to the Colorado Court’s substantive resolution of the issues and am hopeful that this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for office,” she said.

The Colorado statute requires a candidate to be “eligible” but doesn’t list the requirements for eligibility.

On Oct. 30, the Colorado court heard testimony from two police officers who tried to prevent the Capitol breach, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who described the day’s events and eventual evacuation.

Mr. Swalwell said his understanding was that President Trump’s legal avenues for challenging the election had already been exhausted in December 2020.

He said he took a morning run in the capital and saw people carrying dozens of signs saying “Stop the steal” and some people wearing tactical gear. “It gave me an unsettling feeling about the direction the day was going.”

Then he said that he and several of his Democratic colleagues watched President Trump’s speech from a cloakroom off the floor.

He claimed that the former president had “fired up” his supporters, and it all “came together on the 6th” from what he saw on the streets and during the speech.

President Trump said in his Jan. 6 speech that protesters should “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” though some of his critics have seized on a portion of his remarks where he said “we fight like hell” and “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” as a call for violence.

The former president has on numerous occasions denied calling for violent protests while insisting he meant his remarks about fighting like hell metaphorically.

Catherine Yang contributed to this report.