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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has once again sprung into action in a case involving former President Donald Trump.
Reports over the holidays noted that the FBI is looking into threats of violence allegedly made against Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled to block Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot after falsely claiming he was involved in an “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump has not been charged with that crime, let alone convicted for it, and constitutional scholars have said the 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrection’ clause was essentially gutted a century ago in the wake of the Civil War.
According to a statement released by the FBI, agents are working with local police to investigate alleged threats of violence against the four Colorado justices who ruled to block Trump from the ballot.
“The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” said FBI Public Affairs Officer Vikki Migoya in a statement to CNN. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”
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CNN noted further:
In addition to the federal response, state and local law enforcement officials and non-government research groups have been monitoring rhetoric on extremist online forums for signs it might translate to tangible threats to public officials.
The names of the four Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled to disqualify Trump from the ballot have appeared frequently in “incendiary” posts on such forums with calls to expose the judges’ personal data, according to an analysis of the online chatter prepared by one non-partisan research organization for US law enforcement agencies that was obtained by CNN.
While the analysis found no specific threats to the judges, it said “there remains a risk of lone actor or small group violence or other illegal activities in response to the ruling.”
One user on a far-right, pro-Trump website posted, “All f— robed rats must f— hang,” an apparent reference to the Colorado justices.
A former federal prosecutor, meanwhile, predicted last week that the U.S. Supreme Court will handily overturn a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court to boot Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
Ty Cobb, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland — who defended the Trump administration during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s baseless investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion — told CNN that though he thinks Trump’s actions in challenging the 2020 election have been a “disaster” for the GOP, he believes the nation’s highest court will unanimously reverse the decision in Colorado.
“I think this case will be handled quickly,” the attorney said. “I think it could be 9-0 in the Supreme Court for Trump.”
“So, I — the way I see this is — is that the Supreme Court has to take this. They can stay the dates in Colorado. They’ll move expeditiously. I was struck by the majority opinion and the amount of verbiage devoted to the sort of strawman arguments. You know, the real key issue in this case is, is Trump an officer of the United States in the context in which that term is used in Article 3 of the 14th Amendment,” Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
“And in 2010, Chief Justice Roberts explained in Free Enterprise that people don’t vote for officers of the United States. Article 2, ‘officers of the United States,’ is commonly understood in the Constitution to refer to appointed officials. And to the extent that the president or the vice president are included as an officer or included within the admonitions of the Constitution, they are typically highlighted, like in the impeachment clause, which specifically says president, vice president,” he added.
