TRENTON, NJ – John Bellocchio, a New Jersey resident, has filed a lawsuit against the state in an attempt to remove former U.S. President Donald J. Trump from the November election ballot.
Bellocchio filed his lawsuit in Mercer County State Court against Tahesha Way, NJ Secretary of State (now Lt. Governor), and Donna Barber, Director of the Division of Elections, NJ Department of State on September 13th.
On November 15, 2022, Donald Trump filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for president of the United States. That same day, he publicly announced his candidacy in a speech at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Bellocchio claims the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running for President.
“Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, “No person shall . . . hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, . . . who, having previously taken an oath, . . . as an officer of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” he stated in his suit. “The events of January 6, 2021 amounted to an insurrection or a rebellion under Section 3: a violent, coordinated effort to storm the Capitol to obstruct and prevent the Vice President of the United States and the United States Congress from fulfilling their constitutional roles by certifying President Biden’s victory, and to illegally extend then President Trump’s tenure in office.”
He claims the former president tried to “overthrow the results of the election” by means of insurrection and rebellion.
Bellocchio references Confederate soldiers during the civil war, saying Trump does not need to be convicted of a crime, because those soldiers were barred from office, and never convicted of a crime back in the 1800s.
“Most of the House and Senate candidates-elect that Congress excluded from their seats during Reconstruction for engagement in insurrection had never been charged or convicted of any crimes,” he contended.
He says he has a legal right to challenge Trump’s ballot placement.