(CN) — Former President Donald Trump is suing Michigan’s top election official, seeking an order requiring her to put his name on the 2024 election ballot.
In the lawsuit filed in the state’s Court of Claims Monday but not released to the public until Tuesday, Trump claims Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, lacks the authority to omit him from the Republican ballot.
Trump’s complaint is in response to several lawsuits seeking to keep him off primary and general election ballots, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The section disqualifies anyone who has previously taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution from holding office if they have engaged in an insurrection or a rebellion against the country.
Trump, the Republican frontrunner for president, currently faces charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Lawsuits claim Trump violated his oath as president with his actions relating to the insurrection and his broader efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win of the nation's highest office.
But Trump claims the only requirement from him appear on the ballot is that a candidate be “generally advocated by the national news media to be” a candidate — and he claims he undoubtedly meets that criteria.
“The Secretary lacks statutory authority under state law to add or assess other qualifications, including assessing qualifications under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Trump states in the new lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Benson could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Trump also claims in his lawsuit that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to a president of the United States.
“The President is not an ‘officer of the United States’ and does not take the same oath to ‘support’ the Constitution as unelected officials,” Trump says in the lawsuit, which claims that Section 3 only restricts holding office, not running for it.
“The events of January 6, 2021, were a riot,” Trump says in the lawsuit. “They were not an ‘insurrection’ for purposes of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. They did not amount to levying war against the United States.”
The lawsuit adds that even if Jan. 6 was an insurrection, Trump did not engage in it.
“President Trump’s speech regarding the 2020 Election up to and including his speech on the Ellipse of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, constitutes protected speech on a matter of public concern,” the lawsuit states. “None of it meets the stringent requirements for ‘incitement,’ both because the content itself is not sufficiently explicit and because it does not evince a specific intent to engage in unlawful activity.”
Trump also claims that Benson failed to respond to a letter he sent requesting confirmation that his name would be on the ballot.
“The Secretary’s failure to respond is creating uncertainty, which impacts how President Trump will allocate resources,” the lawsuit states. “This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that Secretary Benson is an active member of the opposing major political party and has publicly weighed in with her negative views of President Trump.”
Similar challenges to Trump’s eligibility as a 2024 presidential candidate have gained momentum in several other states.
On Monday, a state court in Denver, Colorado, began hearing arguments stemming from a lawsuit filed by state voters seeking to remove him from the ballot, citing the Capitol riot.
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