{"id":1388294,"date":"2022-03-18T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388294"},"modified":"2022-03-18T12:44:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T16:44:44","slug":"democrats-sue-to-try-to-disqualify-3-gop-congressmen-from-2022-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-sue-to-try-to-disqualify-3-gop-congressmen-from-2022-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Sue to Try to Disqualify 3 GOP Congressmen From 2022 Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-sue-to-try-to-disqualify-3-gop-congressmen-from-2022-ballot%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388294&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Democratic Party activists in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-wisconsin\">Wisconsin<\/a> have filed a suit in federal court arguing that a pro-Trump senator and two pro-Trump congressmen should be barred from office for speaking out on 2020 election irregularities and allegedly attempting to manipulate the congressional certification of the presidential election results.<\/p>\n<p>The Wisconsin Republican lawmakers targeted by the suit are two-term Sen. Ron Johnson, two-term Rep. Tom Tiffany, and freshman Rep. Scott Fitzgerald. All are seeking reelection in November.<\/p>\n<p>The suit claims the lawmakers cannot serve in Congress because the disqualification clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment forbids it. That rarely invoked constitutional provision was enacted in the wake of the Civil War to keep former Confederates out of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson dismissed the lawsuit, telling The Epoch Times it is \u201ctotal nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats have ignored the Summer 2020 riots and relentlessly used January 6th [2021] as a political cudgel,\u201d Johnson said in an emailed statement. \u201cNow, they\u2019ve used January 6th to file a frivolous lawsuit against me, similar to the one dismissed by a court last week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claims the lawmakers \u201cused their public positions of authority to illegally foment an atmosphere meant to intimidate and pressure Vice President [Mike] Pence and Congress to take actions inconsistent with the facts and with their duties under the Electoral Count Act and the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers used \u201ctheir powers as public officials and their respective bully pulpits to undermine public trust in the outcome of the election and to enable a criminal scheme to institute fraudulent electors (in Wisconsin and elsewhere) to manufacture a constitutional crisis on January 6, 2021, over how to count the electoral ballots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legal action claims the lawmakers illegally pressured Pence, in his role as presiding officer at the joint session of Congress certifying the 2020 electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to \u201cunilaterally reject the legitimate electoral votes of Wisconsin and six other states for the Biden\u2013Harris ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 6, 2021, there was a security breach at the U.S. Capitol in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump delayed the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results for several hours. Democrats and some Republicans characterize the disturbance, from which some elected officials took cover, as an insurrection or coup attempt aimed at overthrowing the U.S. government, a claim that has been adamantly denied by Trump and his supporters.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats have attempted to use the disqualification clause to take two other sitting federal lawmakers off the 2022 ballot for their pro-Trump activities. While the challenges to Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.)\u00a0and Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) have both failed, a ruling in the Cawthorn case is under appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The 80-page legal complaint (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/565196936\/Lawsuit-seeking-to-disqualify-Sen-Ron-Johnson-Reps-Thomas-Tiffany-and-Scott-Fitzgerald-Wisconsin-Republicans\">pdf<\/a>) in the case at hand, Stencil v. Johnson, court file 2:22-cv-305, was filed March 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Nancy A. Stencil is one of 10 plaintiffs, all of whom are registered Wisconsin voters.<\/p>\n<p>According to the complaint, the lawmakers \u201cengaged in overt acts in furtherance of a conspiracy meant to foment public distrust in the outcome of the 2020 election, undermine the rule of law, and assist an insurrection against the United States with the illegal goal of reversing the results of the election that made Joseph R. Biden the 46th President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The three lawmakers\u2019 \u201cfalsehoods \u2026 about the integrity of Wisconsin\u2019s election procedures began even before citizens were allowed to cast their ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election and continued long after their lies were disproven.\u201d The lawmakers \u201crepeatedly proclaimed lies about the election and its results, and those lies increased in frequency and intensity as January 6, 2021, approached.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fitzgerald also is accused in the complaint of supporting an alternate slate of Trump electors.\u00a0He allegedly procured a room for \u201cten fraudulent electors from Wisconsin [who] met at the State Capitol on December 14, 2020, the date designated by law\u201d for electoral votes to be cast, the complaint states.<\/p>\n<p>One of the plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers told The Epoch Times the lawsuit isn\u2019t frivolous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLawsuits are made up of facts and legal claims,\u201d attorney Joseph S. Goode said by email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe judge overseeing this case gets to decide how the law applies to the facts as our adversarial system provides. Every fact in our pleading is based on matters of public record. We look forward to litigating the case to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legal challenge is being underwritten by the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC. In a March 13 <a href=\"https:\/\/minocquabrewingcompany.com\/blogs\/news\/help-us-sue-ron-johnson-tom-tiffany-and-scott-fitzgerald-for-aiding-the-insurrection\">statement<\/a> on the left-wing political action committee\u2019s website, founder Kirk Bangstad estimates the lawsuit \u201ccould cost $300,000 to fight over the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bangstad is also the owner of the Minocqua Brewing Co., makers of \u201cprogressive beers\u201d such as Biden Beer, Bernie Brew, AOC IPA, and Filibuster Ale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis lawsuit is BY FAR the biggest thing we\u2019ve ever done, but it\u2019s also the most important and 100% central to our mission of getting rid of Wisconsin\u2019s traitors,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-matthew-vadum\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>contributor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist and a recognized expert in left-wing activism.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic Party activists in Wisconsin have filed a suit in federal court arguing that a pro-Trump senator and two pro-Trump congressmen should be barred from office for speaking out on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}