Trump Ally Rep Scott Perry Faces Insurrection Clause Lawsuit Seeking Removal From Pennsylvania Ballot

Former President Donald Trump's ally Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) is facing a lawsuit from a Pennsylvania activist, one that seeks to remove Perry's name from the 2024 primary ballot due to alleged violations of the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause. This is the same clause that resulted in Trump being excluded from the primary ballots in Maine and Colorado.

Democratic activist and previous Pennsylvania House of Representatives candidate Gene Stilp filed the lawsuit on January 2, claiming Perry's attempt to thwart the 2020 election's certification ought to disqualify him from contesting in the future election, Forbes reported. According to the lawsuit, Stilp asks Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt to determine whether or not Perry may appear on the ballot.

Anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States is ineligible to hold public office under the Fourteenth Amendment. Perry's cellphone records are used in the lawsuit to link him to many Trump White House and campaign aides who discussed ways to rig the Jan. 6 certification process or commit voter fraud to overturn the 2020 election.

“Scott Perry’s own actions and efforts have awakened the application of the Fourteenth Amendment, Section Three, of the United States Constitution which stops those who participate in insurrectionist activities from serving in certain capacities in the government of the United States,” Stilp said. 

"Congressman Perry is focused on critical problems facing south central Pennsylvania and our nation," Perry campaign spokesman Matt Beynon told the York Dispatch. "This is a frivolous lawsuit filed by a fringe activist whose claim to fame is an inflatable pink pig."

Stilp also filed a lawsuit previously to try and prevent Trump from appearing in Pennsylvania's Republican primary, per Penn Live. Trump was excluded from the ballot by the Colorado Supreme Court based on the Fourteenth Amendment and was likewise removed from the Maine ballot by the Secretary of State.

Perry has been identified by investigators as a pivotal role in Trump's attempts in the months preceding the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2020, to reverse the outcome of the election. According to the 154-page 2022 report released by the committee on January 6, Perry possessed "material facts" about Trump's attempts to rig the 2020 election. It suggested that the House Ethics Committee take action in light of Perry's defiance of a previous subpoena.

A federal judge decided last month that most of Perry's cell phone records would be sent to special counsel Jack Smith for his investigation into Trump's involvement in the effort to rig the 2020 presidential election. More than 1,600 texts from Perry's cell phone were made available to Smith's office, and they may provide insight into whether and how he tried to assist Trump in tampering with the 2020 election. Perry was in contact with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, two Trump backers who actively spread misleading information on the election. A judge who examined the phone records characterized the conversations as "proactive, persistent, and protracted."