Retiring Representative Ken Buck Testifies in Colorado’s Trial to Remove President Trump from Ballot
On the fourth day of a lawsuit aimed at barring former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Colorado, Congressman Ken Buck was called to testify by Trump’s defense team.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a coalition of six Republicans and unaffiliated Colorado voters, including former state and federal officials, filed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
The plaintiffs are represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit and “nonpartisan” watchdog organization, alongside law firms Tierney Lawrence Stiles LLC, KBN Law, LLC, and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC.
The plaintiffs are Norma Anderson, Michelle Priola, Claudine Cmarada, Krista Kafer, Kathi Wright, and Christopher Castilian.
The case argues that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies any individual from holding federal office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
Congressman Ken Buck was tasked with discrediting the January 6 committee’s report which alleges Trump’s involvement in an insurrection. Buck provided testimony remotely from his office in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Buck asserted that the committee’s approach was biased against Trump and motivated by political vendetta, Buck highlighted its failure to cross-examine certain witnesses, challenge specific pieces of evidence, and subpoena particular documents that could have negated allegations against Trump.
“It’s like going into a courtroom as a prosecutor, not having a defense counsel or a defendant. I think, in order to be able to judge someone’s culpability, you’ve got to be able to hear both sides of the story, and in this case, there was not another side,” Buck said.
Buck’s primary testimony focused solely on his experiences from Jan. 6 and his perspectives on the report from the January 6 committee, according to 9 News.
“I voted to certify the election. I thought what happened on January 6 was obviously bad. It was a riot in the Capitol building. It was meant to disturb a proceeding, and I felt that the parts of the report that I saw described those things. It went beyond that in other areas and that’s where I think the cross-examination, in terms of the president’s culpability, would have been important,”
“A police officer came to the microphone and said that tear gas had been dispersed. And we were advised that there were gas masks under our seats, and we should deploy those gas masks. There was clear indication that there was a danger at that point.”
“I came back to my office rather than the secure committee room, and I saw on TV what was going on and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, there are a lot of people out there.”
Buck disclosed that he had expressed his desire to join the committee to then-Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. However, McCarthy, in his capacity, declined Buck’s request.
“I actually called Kevin McCarthy because of my background as a prosecutor, and I asked Kevin if I could get his permission to seek to serve on that committee because I thought it was important that witnesses were cross-examined, and documents were challenged. And Kevin told me that he did not want me serving on that committee, and that he did not want anybody else, any other Republican, serving on that committee,” Buck said.
During cross-examination, Buck was asked whether Trump’s remarks incited violence among supporters.
“If President Trump says, ‘it’s your duty to vote, you need to go vote,’ I think that his supporters would listen to that and follow his instructions. I think if President Trump says, ‘you know, I want you to go kill somebody,’ I don’t think political supporters, being political supporters, and not otherwise engaged, would go and kill somebody. I think it depends on what the order is. And I think it depends on the legality of the order. And I think it depends on the context of the order,” Buck said.
Attorney Mario Nicolais, representing the petitioners aiming to prevent Trump’s qualification, sought to connect Buck’s recent video statement—where he announced his decision to refrain from seeking reelection—with his perceptions of the events of January 6.
Nicolais asked, “And did you also say, ‘these insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans confidence in the rule of law.’ Did you say that as well?”
“I did,” Buck said.
Nicolais pressed on, “What are the lies and insidious narratives regarding the 2020 election and January 6 that you’re talking about?”
As Buck began to formulate his answer, he was cut off by Trump’s attorney, Scott Gessler.
Raising a formal objection, Gessler argued., “Your honor, do I need to – may I object again. This may be salacious political material, but it’s beyond the scope of the direct, it’s not for bias and if we want to avoid this becoming a circus, we should not go into this testimony.”
The judge concurred with Gessler’s objection. Since Buck’s initial testimony was specifically centered around his January 6 experience and the related commission report, the judge did not find sufficient grounds to allow the line of questioning about his reelection video statement to continue.
Buck agreed that the Jan 6 Committee was incomplete and one-sided.
The Colorado congressman agreed with Trump attorney Scott Gessler’s sentiments that the report was “incomplete” with “one perspective,” saying that it was just an excuse to bolster Democratic efforts to impeach the former president.
“There was a political purpose to that report, as there is with almost everything in Congress, and the political purpose was ultimately to win elections and to paint the one side in as bad a light as possible,” Buck said. “And that’s why typically there is a minority report in an investigation like this.”
“It’s my view that the people that would have been most challenging to the evidence and testimony were not seated, either by [former] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi or Leader McCarthy, ultimately on the committee,” Buck added. “I think in order to be able to judge someone’s culpability you’ve got to be able to hear both sides of the story. And in this case, there was not another side.”
Ken Buck recently announced that he will not seek re-election to Congress.
Buck, who has been in Congress since 2015, made the announcement via a video statement on Wednesday in which he cited his frustrations with the current direction of the Republican Party. Specifically, he mentioned what he sees as dishonesty among GOP leaders concerning the 2020 election and the events that transpired at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
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