Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead manager of the second impeachment of Donald Trump, said Sunday that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any case involving Mr. Trump’s eligibility to be on the 2024 presidential ballot.
A future Supreme Court case appears likely since Maine and Colorado have barred Mr. Trump from appearing on the primary ballot, citing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as a disqualifying factor under the 14th Amendment’s ban on elected officials who have engaged in insurrection.
Justice Thomas “should recuse himself,” Mr. Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He referred to Justice Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist who supported Mr. Trump and arguments that he had won the election.
“Anybody looking at this in any kind of dispassionate, reasonable way would say if your wife was involved in the big lie and claiming that Donald Trump actually won the presidential election and been agitating for that and participating in the events leading up to Jan. 6, that you shouldn’t be participating,” Mr. Raskin said.
Republicans and the Trump campaign have accused blue states of attempting to interfere in the election, while some Democrats warn that booting Mr. Trump from the ballot could make him a political martyr.
“Donald Trump is in that tiny, tiny number of people who’ve essentially disqualified themselves,” Mr. Raskin said.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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