Lawsuit Alleges 3 Lawmakers, Part of Trump Electors Plot, Cannot Run for Office

A group of citizens from Wisconsin — as well as a brewing company in the state — are suing to disqualify three Republican candidates for office, arguing that they played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and thus aided and engaged in an insurrection against the United States.

The lawsuit requests that a federal court rule that Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany & Scott Fitzgerald, along with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, be declared guilty. are insurrectionists. All three Republicans represent Wisconsin, and are up for reelection in this year’s midterm elections.

This challenge is similar to the one being waged against Rep. Madison Cawthorn (a Republican from North Carolina). Who faces eligibility questions by 11 residents in this stateSome believe he should not be allowed to run again due his participation in the events that occurred on January 6, 2021.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are ten Wisconsin residents and the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC.

“These guys broke the law and shouldn’t be on a ballot again,” Kirk Bangstad, owner of the brewing company, said in a statement.

Bangstad, who is also running as a Democrat in a state Assembly race later this year, added:

It’s weird for a brewery to be pushing things in a political sense, but that’s where we are because we feel like there’s not enough intestinal fortitude among some of our higher up legislators or Justice Department officials to be doing what we’re doing right now.

Gerard Lisi (a Rice Lake resident, Wisconsinite and one of 10 Wisconsinites listed as defendants in the lawsuit) stated that the lies that the Republicans propagated about election fraud led residents in his region to mistakenly believe that the election had actually been stolen.

“Where I live in this part of the country, way too many of my friends and neighbors are very, very upset. They believe passionately that the election was stolen from Trump,” Lisi said. “They are taking cues from guys like Tiffany and Johnson.”

Johnson responded to the challenge by decrying it as “a frivolous lawsuit” against him. Johnson was heavily involved in the strategy of the Trump campaign in the days preceding the attack on U.S. Capitol. even attending a meeting regarding the fake electors plotto ensure that Trump remains in office despite Joe Biden’s loss.

Fitzgerald also played a direct role in the plot to use fake electors’ votes to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. A request for open records was filed earlier this year, by Chris Larson, Democratic state senator. It revealed that Fitzgerald, who was the majority leader of state Senate in December 2020. facilitated the counting of fake electors in the stateYou can reserve a room in the Capitol building for these individuals to count their fake ballots.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disallows lawmakers who have previously taken an oath to the United States, and who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S., from running for office or serving in government again, unless Congress votes to reinstate their eligibility by a two-thirds vote of each house.

However, that amendment is ambiguous when it comes to who determines whether a person engaged in insurrection or not, which could potentially obstruct the Wisconsin lawsuit’s success. It’s unclear whether a federal judge can make that determination — and as one observer noted, any challenges that do come about, such as those against the Wisconsin lawmakers and Cawthorn, are likely to be “a hot mess.”