ATLANTA — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will remain on the ballot for reelection, Georgia’s secretary of state said Friday after a judge ruled that challengers who had tried to disqualify her because of her support for the unsuccessful insurrection at the U.S. Capitol “failed to prove their case.”
“Challengers make a valiant effort to support inferences that Rep. Greene was an insurrectionist, but the evidence is lacking, and the court is not persuaded,” State Administrative Judge Charles Beaudrot wrote in his decision.
Greene on Friday applauded the decision and said it “gives me hope that we can win and save our country.”
”Democrats know they can’t beat me at the ballot box, so left-wing Communist activists tried to rip my name off the ballot,” she said. “And they failed.”
The developments were a blow to Greene’s critics, who said she violated a 14th Amendment clause that bars members of Congress from serving if they tried to overthrow the government.
Free Speech For People, which had led the challenge, said in a statement that the decision “betrays the fundamental purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause and gives a pass to political violence as a tool for disrupting and overturning free and fair elections.”
But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger dismissed their concerns and cleared Greene to run.
Attorneys for several challengers from Greene’s northwest Georgia district argued that her actions between the November 2020 general election and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol were tantamount to support for an insurrection.
The decision wasn’t surprising. He had signaled frustration with the challengers’ case throughout an April 22 hearing.
“Whether the invasion of January 6 amounted to an insurrection is an issue of tremendous importance to all Americans and one that may yet be addressed,” he wrote. “However, it is not a question for this court to answer at this time.”
Greene, a Rome Republican, supported then-President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his general election loss by rejecting Electoral College ballots in Georgia and other contested states.
But her attorneys argued that her remarks and actions were protected free speech.
Although the voters’ challenge was unsuccessful, they did accomplish a goal: forcing Greene to testify in public and under oath about her activities in late 2020 and early 2021. So far, she is the only Trump loyalist in Congress who has been required to do so.
But Greene didn’t provide much information during hours of questioning at last month’s hearing.
During a series of testy exchanges with the challengers’ attorneys, Greene repeatedly said she didn’t remember many of her remarks or actions leading up to the breach of the Capitol. She also disputed video clips and news articles documenting her statements at the time, dismissing them as manipulated by the “biased” media.
And though she acknowledged she promoted the rally that day supporting Trump’s false claims of election fraud, she described herself as a victim of the breach that left her scrambling for safety when a joint session of Congress was interrupted by protesters.
Several police officers and rioters died during or immediately after the attack, and scores of officers were injured.
“I was scared. I was very scared. I was concerned. I was shocked, shocked, shocked, absolutely shocked,” Greene said of her emotions the day of the Capitol attack.
Text messages obtained by CNN just days after the hearing revealed that Greene had been in communication with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows leading up to Jan. 6. The texts indicated that Greene had played a role in drafting Trump’s game plan for that day but was also asking for help to calm the out-of-control crowd.
During the hearing on the voters’ challenge, Greene had testified that she couldn’t recall whether she urged Trump to impose martial law to remain in power. But within the texts shared with CNN was a message she apparently sent Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, about discussions among Republican House members on that very topic.
“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) law,” she wrote. “I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know.”
Free Speech For People and Our Revolution, a group that grew out of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, were behind the challenge to Greene’s candidacy.
Greene faces five challengers in the May 24 Republican primary for her seat, and all of them say they would be more effective and less controversial if voters sent them to Washington.
Her leading opponent is health care consultant Jennifer Strahan, who has the backing of some Republicans in local and federal offices but is no match for Greene in fundraising or name recognition.
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