Legal expert throws cold water on plan to bar Trump from running for office

Some legal experts have pushed the idea that former President Donald Trump is facially ineligible to even run for president again at all, due to his support for the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — seemingly contradicting the 14th Amendment's prohibition on those who "engaged in insurrection" from holding federal office. Two of the most prominent advocates of this theory are retired Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, and conservative former federal Judge Michael Luttig.

But unfortunately, that is probably not going to hold water, argued legal analyst Charles Coleman on MSNBC Friday.

"A thing hanging around in the Constitution a really long time, 14th Amendment, Section 3 that says if you took an oath to the U.S. government and have an insurrection against the U.S. government, you can no longer hold military, state or federal office," said anchor Ali Velshi. "People are talking about this a lot in the last two, three weeks about the fact this would prevent Donald Trump from being president. Your quick thoughts?"

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"Ali, for as interesting as a theory as this might be, at present right now, given what [special counsel] Jack Smith has and has not done with respect to charges against Donald Trump, I just don't see it happening, I don't see it moving forward. I think it is a principally interesting argument, but also that it's a procedural nightmare."

The fundamental problem, said Coleman, is that Trump hasn't actually even been accused of the federal crime of insurrection, at least in a legal sense.

"Ultimately without an actual charge of insurrection from the DOJ to support this, I think there's a big hurdle for anyone pushing this sort of theory to get beyond in terms of actualizing it," Coleman continued. "As far as legal theory and debate is concerned, very, very interesting, but for anyone looking to see this transform into a barrier for Donald Trump, I don't see that as being very likely."

Watch the video below or at the link.

Charles Coleman explains why 14th Amendment can't block Trumpwww.youtube.com