Trump Ally Rep. Scott Perry Faces Lawsuit To Remove Him From Pennsylvania Ballot Due Role In Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

On January 2, a lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court to remove Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) from the state’s 2024 ballot.

This lawsuit was filed by the Harrisburg activist and former congressional candidate Gene Stilp.

It also called for Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Al Schmidt (D) to remove Perry from the ballot before the tenth Congressional district primary in spring 2024.

The lawsuit claimed that Perry participated in insurrectionist activity by helping Donald Trump try to stay in office after the 2020 election. As a result of his actions, the lawsuit claims, Perry is unable to hold public office under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

According to the lawsuit, this clause was designed to stop people who engage in insurrectionist activities from serving in specific levels of power in the U.S. government. It was originally added to the Constitution to prevent representatives who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War from returning to Congress.

“Scott Perry was a leading proponent of using the January 6, 2021, Congressional presidential election certification process to disrupt the transfer of presidential administration from Trump to Biden,” Stilp stated.

The lawsuit cites Perry’s role in attempting to use the Department of Justice to help Trump delay the election’s certification by lobbying for the appointment of an acting attorney general who would be open to Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

The lawsuit requests a referral to the Pennsylvania attorney general for the prosecution of Perry.

Perry’s lawyer, John P. Rowley, issued a statement:

“This lawsuit was filed by a partisan activist who clearly has no regard or understanding of how our Democratic Republic works,” the lawyer wrote. “It is but the latest effort by an extremist to disqualify a duly elected official with whom he disagrees. We are confident the Supreme Court will put an end to this lunacy.”

Perry has not been charged with crimes linked to the January 6 Capitol attack to date.

As of now, he is running unopposed in the Republican primary for the tenth congressional district seat while seven Democrats are running in their primary.

Perry cannot file for Pennsylvania’s 2024 primary ballot until January 23. When the time comes for him to file, he has until February 13 to do so.

In late December 2023, a YouGov America survey revealed that 54% of Americans, and even 24% of Republicans, agreed with the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot. The court’s ruling was made after finding that Trump violated the 14th Amendment, which made him ineligible for the ballot.

Around the same time, Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, removed Trump from Maine’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the 14th Amendment.