New Mexico official who participated in Jan. 6 riot removed from office

A New Mexico judge ruled Tuesday that Couy Griffin, a county commissioner and co-founder of Cowboys for Trump, is disqualified to continue serving in office because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Plaintiffs in the case argued that Griffin’s presence among the rioters that day disqualified him from serving under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding federal or state office who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to insurrectionists.

The decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under the provision and the first time that any court has ruled that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were an insurrection, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which represented New Mexico residents in the case.

District Court Judge Francis Mathew agreed that Griffin’s actions, though nonviolent, met the definition of disqualifying behavior.

In March, Griffin, an Otero County commissioner, was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering or remaining on restricted grounds by a federal judge. Griffin is one of the founders of the group Cowboys for Trump and a fervent supporter of the former president. Griffin had claimed he was a victim of political persecution - although his judge in March, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, was appointed by Trump in 2017.

Among the evidence used to convict Griffin at the trial was video recorded by a videographer Griffin brought with him to Washington. That video showed Griffin climbing over a stone wall that marked the Capitol’s security perimeter and spending more than an hour on the front railing of the inaugural stage with a bullhorn, leading the crowd below in prayer.

Griffin “crossed over three walls” McFadden wrote in March. “All of this would suggest to a normal person that perhaps you should not be entering the area.”

In 2018 Griffin was elected county commissioner, with 65 percent of the vote, easily defeating a Democratic challenger.

Mathew, the judge in New Mexico, held a two-day bench trial on the case last month and gave both sides additional time to submit written closing arguments.

“Nonviolent members of the mob, including Griffin, camouflaged violent members of the mob, contributed to law enforcement being overwhelmed by a ‘sea of potential threats,’ " attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the closing statement. “Griffin did more than just join the mob: he incited, encouraged, and helped normalize the mob’s violence on January 6.”

Griffin argued in a written closing statement that those seeking to remove him from public office “missed their mark” and failed to prove that the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection, according to the Albuquerque Journal.