The FBI said it will investigate threats against the Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled this week that former President Donald Trump should not be on the state’s primary ballot.
“The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” Vikki Migoya, spokeswoman for the FBI Denver Field Office, said in a statement. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”
The justices ruled in a 4-3 decision that Mr. Trump should not be allowed on the ballot in Colorado, citing the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. They said Mr. Trump was part of what they called an insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
The Colorado justices have since reported dozens of threats against them, according to a report acquired by NBC News from the nonpartisan research group Advance Democracy.
The group tracked “significant violent rhetoric” against the justices online. Many of the posts dug up by the organization saw users pledging to kill or attack the justices.
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“The normalization of this type of violent rhetoric — and lack of remedial action by social media entities — is cause for significant concern,” Advance Democracy President Daniel Jones told NBC. “Trump’s statements, which have sought to delegitimize and politicize the actions of the courts, is serving as a key driver of the violent rhetoric.”
The justices ruled in favor of a lower court’s decision that Mr. Trump was responsible for inciting his supporters on Jan. 6 and went further by finding that the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment applied to the former president.
Similar legal challenges against Mr. Trump have cropped up in 13 other states, including the Michigan and Arizona battlegrounds.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was expected to decide on whether the ex-president would appear on the state’s primary ballot but punted to allow more time for those for and against Mr. Trump’s ballot appearance to make their case after the decision in Colorado.
Republicans are counterattacking with bills in three states — Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona — to oust President Biden from ballots for what they call his insurrection of opening the southern border to millions of illegal immigrants.