Trump to rely on 'linguistic gymnastics' to beat ballot removals at Supreme Court: expert

Trump's jumping through hoops to beat back Maine's decision to leave him off of the GOP primary election ballot.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday dug in for a fight by filing an appeal defending himself against claims that he engaged in an insurrection against the United States.

Legal analyst Elie Honig conveyed his read of the document which the 45th president succinctly states: "I was not engaged in insurrection."

It's then that the former federal prosecutor starts to lay out the rationale of why Trump should be included as a candidate in the 2024 election for president.

It involves mostly process but also one central point: that the president "doesn't not count as an officer of the United States" under the 14th Amendment.

Honig called Trump's legal team out for purportedly "using some sort of legalistic linguistic gymnastics" to prove he's a constitutional contender.

He points to how Trump attempts to needle with the process.

READ MORE: Five unresolved questions surrounding the Jan. 6 attack

The arguments Trump lays out, according to Honig, include fighting jurisdiction — namely that Congress not states should be the proper venue to determine this issue, blaming the state for not following its "its own procedures," claiming Secretary of State Shenna Bellows "should have recused herself," and that even the forms Trump filled out to get on the ballot apparently failed to mention the 14th Amendment.

In the end, Honig, who said he believes Trump engaged in insurrection back on Jan. 6, 2021, maintains Trump's best shot is procedural.

"I think the procedural arguments is where this will be resolved," he said. "When we see the higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court take this up, they are going to answer these questions, which, by the way, we don't know."

"This is completely uncharted territory," he said. "I think the Supreme Court will answer first: is it up to Congress, which has not acted about how the 14th Amendment should work, or is it up to the states?"

"If it's up to the states did they follow their own procedures and did they provide enough due process? This will be settled on the latter grounds of procedural questions."

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