Supreme Court rejects ‘Cowboys for Trump’ founder’s appeal to stay in office after Jan 6

A former county commissioner in New Mexico who was convicted on charges connected to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol won’t be allowed to return to office.

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Couy Griffin, who was removed by a state judge under a constitutional clause that bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes days after the justices declined to remove Donald Trump from Colorado ballots under a similar challenge.

Several state judges found that the former president violated the US Constitution and “engaged in insurrection” after failing to stop the mob, but the nation’s high court found that only Congress, not individual states, could disqualify federal candidates.

Griffin, however, was an elected official at the local level. And unlike Mr Trump, he was convicted on charges stemming from the mob’s assault to block the certification of 2020’s presidential election results.

Griffin, the founder of the pro-Trump group Cowboys for Trump, climbed a toppled fence and another barrier to reach the steps of the Capitol, where he called on the mob to pray, according to federal prosecutors.

In September 2022, after a lawsuit and a civil bench trial in state court, a judge removed him from office, marking the first time in more than 100 years that a court disqualified a public official and the first time an elected official was removed from office for their role on January 6.

Three months earlier, after repeating baseless claims about voting machines and allegations of fraud, Griffin refused to certify legitimate primary election results in his county, triggering a standoff with state election officials.

Now-former Otero County Commission