Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green told a Georgian judge hearing an attempt to block her from the ballot in her re-election that she called on people to join the January 6, 2021 “peaceful march,” which turned into a violent attack. against the US Capitol.
A group of voters has again challenged Green’s re-election, claiming that a supporter of former President Donald Trump has violated a provision in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, known as the “Rebel Disqualification Clause”.
A clause passed after the US Civil War in the 1860s barred politicians from running for Congress if they had participated in a “riot or riot” or “aided or abetted” the enemies of the nation.
“I asked people to come for a peaceful march that everyone has the right to do,” Green said. “I did not ask them to take an active part in the violence.
Andrew Selly, a voter’s attorney, cross-examined Green, who occasionally does not recall past statements she made that were recorded on video or audio – including a call for Trump to impose martial law and a Facebook video in which she called the Speaker of the House of Democrats Nancy Pelosi is treacherous and pointed out that treason is a “crime punishable by death.”
Green initially refused to make the statement about Pelosi, but later admitted it during questioning by Celli and the judge.
James Bopp, Green’s lawyer, said the statement was “hyperbole” and irrelevant to the case.
But Green looked puzzled when Sally asked if she was advocating political violence against people she disagreed with.
“I don’t think so,” Green said. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Friday’s hearing ended without the judge ruling.
In media interviews, Green downplayed and justified the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters in their failed attempt to block Congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020. Green said this month that Democrats and journalists have insisted on “too much dramatization ”of the events of that day.
Selly released a clip from an interview Green conducted on January 5, 2021, in which she said that preventing certification was “our moment in 1776” – apparently a reference to the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. When Sally asked if she was aware that some Trump supporters had used the remark as a call for violence, Green said it was not her intention and spoke of her plans to object to electoral certification.
“I was talking about the courage to object,” she said.
He is looking for re-election this year
In his introductory remarks, Bopp argued that removing her from the ballot would be unfair to both her and voters in her conservative constituency.
“In principle, the rights of the First Amendment are at stake, not just the right to vote, as I mentioned, or the right to run for office,” Bopp said.
Green’s Republican colleague, Matt Goetz of Florida, appeared at a support hearing in Atlanta on Friday. (John Basemore / Associated Press)
In his closing remarks, he called it a “political demonstration process”.
In Green’s defense, he then released a video she recorded after a Capitol breach in which she called for demonstrators to be peaceful.
But during Sally’s cross-examination, she failed to testify to a single case between the 2020 and January 6 elections, in which she called on protesters against the outcome of the election to be peaceful.
Green is running for re-election this year. Republican primary elections are scheduled for May 24, and the general election is scheduled for November 8.
Missing ballots will begin mailing on April 25.
The voter challenge is led by a group called Free Speech for the People, which advocates for campaign finance reform. Similar efforts by the group against North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Kothorn and three Arizona Republicans were rejected by the courts.
Green is expected to appeal any decision against her, and has already filed a parallel lawsuit in the US Federal Court, seeking to suspend the administrative proceedings.
Georgia is also the site of the grand jury associated with Trump
The actions of Trump’s allies were scrutinized on or before January 6, and a congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot is expected to hold televised hearings sometime in May.
Late Thursday, Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the US House of Representatives, was criticized by his own party after an audio recording showed Trump had to resign over the Capitol uprising.
WATCH How Conspiracy Theories Influence US Political Beliefs:
How disinformation threatens American democracy
Conspiracy and disinformation theories are influencing US political beliefs like never before. False allegations that the 2020 election was stolen, some American voters justify the violence that took place in the US Capitol on January 6. Some researchers fear there could be more violence if voters do not accept the results of the November midterm elections. 4:43
McCarthy’s comments, hours before the recording came out, could undermine his well-known ambition to become Speaker of the House next year if Republicans take control of the by-elections in November, which many have predicted.
Trump’s actions are also being considered by this House House committee, while his communications with Georgian officials after the 2020 election will be the subject of a special grand jury in the state, with testimony expected in June. Trump’s telephone conversation in early January 2021 with Georgian officials, including Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger, begged him to “find” votes that would allow him to surpass Biden.
In a statement Thursday, Trump wrongly accused Rafensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, of allowing the challenge against Green to continue, saying she was “going through hell in an attempt to overthrow her.”
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