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A watchdog group says that if former President Donald Trump announces a second presidential bid, it will seek to disqualify him from serving again under a provision in the Constitution that bars candidates who have engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against the United States.
"Should you seek or secure any future elected or appointed government office including the presidency of the United States, we will pursue your disqualification," wrote Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in a letter to the former president released on Thursday.
The group cites Section 3 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits candidates who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding any public office in the United States.
"By summoning a violent mob to disrupt the transition of presidential power mandated by the Constitution after having sworn to defend the same, you made yourself ineligible to hold public office again," wrote Bookbinder. "The evidence that you engaged in insurrection as contemplated by the Fourteenth Amendment — including by mobilizing, inciting, and aiding those who attacked the Capitol — is overwhelming
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for incitement of an insurrection on January 6, 2021, though he was later acquitted by the US Senate. He is widely expected to announce a second presidential bid sometime after this year's midterm elections.
Adopted following the Civil War in 1968, the provision has mostly been used to disqualify officials tied to the Confederacy, and was last used by Congress in 1919 to disqualify Socialist candidate Victor Berger over accusations of giving aid and comfort to Germany during World War I.
But in the wake of the January 6, some have attempted to use the provision to disqualify Republicans who supported Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In April, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia's candidacy for Congress was challenged under the provision, and the congresswoman was made to answer questions under penalty of perjury about whether she'd called for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's execution or urged Trump to declare martial law to remain in power. However, the challenge was ultimately unsuccessful.
But in September, another such challenge was successful; Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin of New Mexico, the founder of Cowboys for Trump and a participant in the January 6 riot, was removed from office by a federal judge in New Mexico under the provision as the result of a lawsuit brought by CREW.
It remains unclear which jurisdiction the group would choose to lodge their challenge. Asked for clarification, CREW communications director Jordan Libowitz told Insider that the group is "not limiting our options."
A spokesman from Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
