A vote to impeach Democratic Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold for her effort to boot former President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot resulted in defeat on Tuesday, with three votes in favor of the resolution and eight votes against.
Two conservative House members brought forward six articles of impeachment on April 4 accusing Griswold of being too partisan and they cited her calling Trump an insurrectionist who deserved to be banned from running for office again.
They concluded that her conduct constitutes "malfeasance in office, dereliction of duty, unfitness for office, and abuse of the public trust."
“We ask you to consider what was the true purpose of the Secretary of State using her power as the chief election officer to advocate for the removal of a candidate from the election ballot,” said Republican House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs.
As for Griswold, she told Colorado Public Radio that the impeachment attempt was a "sham endeavor."
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“It's very clear that it's not a serious matter, but I'm sure they'll try to use it for their base and they'll try to use it to push out misinformation, which is a shame because again, lies about our elections have real world consequences," she said.
The effort to prevent Trump from appearing on the GOP primary ballot was spearheaded by six Colorado voters with the legal backing of a nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Together, they sued Trump and Griswold in state court, alleging that the former president had disqualified himself based on his actions leading up to and during Jan. 6, 2021, where a mob of supporters convening at the U.S. Capitol for a "Stop The Steal" rally exploded into a full-fledged riot where five people died.
They cited the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; specifically Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 and enforced in only a handful of cases in the last 150 years, prohibiting a person who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding office again.
