{"id":38862,"date":"2022-08-16T23:11:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T05:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cowboys-for-trump-leader-fighting-to-keep-job-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2022-08-17T05:11:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T05:11:29","slug":"cowboys-for-trump-leader-fighting-to-keep-job-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cowboys-for-trump-leader-fighting-to-keep-job-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys For Trump leader fighting to keep job in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin represents himself in a lawsuit to have him removed from office in First District Court in Santa Fe, N.M., on Monday. Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Eddie Moore<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

Griffin was previously convicted of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.<\/p>\n

Three residents of Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Griffin from being commissioner of Otero County\u2019s 2nd District for the rest of his term.<\/p>\n

Griffin, a 47-year-old Republican, is representing himself in the two-day bench trial that began Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit is about removing a duly elected county commissioner from office through the civil court,\u201d Griffin said in court. \u201cBy allowing this case to move forward, you\u2019re going to set a very dangerous precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the witness stand Monday, Griffin said he went to Washington, D.C. to peacefully protest and pray with other Trump supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no intention of breaking the law on that day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The three plaintiffs in the case argued in a 259-page petition that Griffin should be disqualified from holding public office on the basis of a clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

The amendment holds that anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution be barred from office for engaging in insurrection or rebellion or giving aid or comfort to the nation\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n

\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was called to testify by the plaintiff's attorneys in a lawsuit to have him removed from office in First District Court in Santa Fe on Monday. Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Eddie Moore<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin testifies in a lawsuit to have him removed from office in First District Court in Santa Fe on Monday. Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Eddie Moore<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin stands outside at First District Court in Santa Fe on Monday Aug. 15. Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Eddie Moore<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County Commissioner Couy Griffin represents himself in a lawsuit to have him removed from office in First District Court in Santa Fe, N.M., on Monday. Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38862"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}