John,

Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, Trump is constitutionally disqualified from holding office because of his efforts to keep himself in power despite losing the 2020 election and incitement of the insurrection on January 6th, 2021.

Trump must be held to the same standards as any other presidential candidate. In order to seek the presidency, you must be at least 35 years of age, be born in the United States, have lived in the United States for at least 14 years, not have already been elected to two terms in office and not have engaged in insurrection after swearing an oath to support the Constitution.

We sued today in Colorado because the law is clear and Trump’s conduct blatantly violated both the letter of the law and the intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment.

This was not a step we took lightly—very much to the contrary. Today’s lawsuit is the culmination of years of careful consideration, precedent-setting cases, legal research, and compiling the evidence needed to prove Trump’s disqualification.

Despite the strength of our arguments and the clear evidence in our favor, this lawsuit is not going to be easy to win. We know that. But we also know that no matter how challenging this path may be, it is absolutely necessary to protect our democracy.

Seeing the pattern of Trump’s conduct, ultimately, we felt we had no choice but to act:

• Trump knowingly spread the lie that the election was “stolen” from him
• Trump and his “Stop the Steal” movement ginned up fake electors to falsely give electoral votes to Trump that he had lost
• Trump and his allies pressured Mike Pence and Congress to use those fake electoral votes to overturn the results of the election
• Trump mobilized a violent mob to come to Washington D.C. for a “wild” protest on January 6th
• Trump incited the mob to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results by marching to the Capitol
• Trump failed to act for nearly three hours as his mob ransacked the Capitol, brutally assaulted police officers, and called for the murder of elected officials

Since then, Trump has expressed no remorse about the attack on the Capitol—instead promising to pardon the rioters and calling them “patriots.”

We are convinced that if Trump is not barred from holding office, he could use the same insurrectionist playbook again, and he could succeed. If we don’t use this key constitutional protection now, it could disappear as an option. That is why we sued today.

You will be hearing much more from CREW in the coming days and months about this effort. I want to thank you in advance for your support and your help spreading the word about this important work.

This is our biggest fight yet, but democracy depends on all of us stepping up in this moment.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW