National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) donated to former President Donald Trump’s legal defense fund after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Daines donated $5,000 from his leadership PAC to Trump’s defense fund after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified the 45th president from the ballot over the Fourteenth Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”
“What happened in Colorado was a disgrace to our country and our democracy,” Daines said in a written statement. “Democrats are using an underhanded strategy of legal warfare and election interference to take President Trump out because they know Joe Biden’s record of open borders, high prices, and out-of-control crime is indefensible. I’m proud to stand with President Trump as he fights to Make America Great Again.”
Daines and the NRSC also plan to file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, arguing that it should reverse the Colorado decision.
“The court found by clear and convincing evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in Section Three” of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Colorado Supreme Court ruling reads.
In his dissent, Chief Justice Boatright wrote:
Dismissal is particularly appropriate here because the Electors brought their challenge without a determination from a proceeding (e.g., a prosecution for an insurrection-related offense) with more rigorous procedures to ensure adequate due process.
The court’s determination that Trump engaged in an insurrection comes even though the former president has never been convicted of that or any other crime. He also has never been charged with committing an insurrection. The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of insurrection charges, and Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, issued a statement reading:
Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice. Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls. They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November. The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision. We have full confidence that the Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.
Daines, who has endorsed Trump, has also called on all other Republican presidential candidates to drop out of the 2024 presidential primary race and coalesce around Trump.
“Because it’s clear President Trump is going to be the nominee for Republicans for president, and the sooner we coalesce around him, the better it’s going to be,” Daines said.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.