'Unrequited': Trump lawyer compares Jan. 6 rioters to ex-president's 'stalkers'

On Wednesday, during former President Donald Trump's 14th Amendment trial in Colorado, an attorney representing him tried to absolve him of blame for insurrection at the Capitol by comparing the supporters who stormed the complex in his name to stalkers.

The attorney, according to Politico legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, said that Trump's relationship with the far-right and insurrectionists is akin to "unrequited" love, like a "stalker and his victim" — comparing it to Jon Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan out of an obsession with actress Jodie Foster, and to Jim Carrey's character in "Dumb and Dumber."

The trial, which is litigating a civil suit brought on behalf of Republican and unaffiliated voters by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is arguing that the former president is ineligible for office under the 14th Amendment's Insurrection Clause, which prohibits those who have been involved in insurrection from serving in official office.

There is not a lot of historical precedent for how to enforce this provision, but legal scholars including former Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe and conservative former judge Michael Luttig have said judges should disqualify Trump on this basis.

Similar cases have been filed in multiple states, but many of them have hit dead ends or roadblocks.

In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court ruled it could not block Trump from the primary ballot, but that the case could be refiled with respect to the general election ballot. In Michigan, a similar case was thrown out this week, but that decision could be appealed.