In a first-of-a-kind ruling, a New Mexico judge on Tuesday removed MAGA rioter and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from his elected position as a county commissioner for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Griffin, who was convicted of trespassing earlier this year, was one of three commissioners in Otero County. He is also barred from holding any state or federal elected position in the future, state Judge Francis Mathew ruled Tuesday, CNN reported.
The historic ruling represents the first time an elected official has been removed from office for their participation in the deadly riot. It also marks the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021, were an “insurrection.”
“The irony of Mr. Griffin’s argument that this Court should refrain from applying the law and consider the will of the people in District Two of Otero County who retained him as a county commissioner against a recall effort as he attempts to defend his participation in an insurrection by a mob whose goal, by his own admission, was to set aside the results of a free, fair and lawful election by a majority of the people of the entire country (the will of the people) has not escaped this Court,” Mathew wrote.
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Griffin, an ardent conspiracy theorist who refused to certify the state’s primary election results this summer in Otero County, told CNN he has been ordered to clean out his office and attacked the judge as being “tyrannical.”
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit seeking Griffin’s removal, which alleged that he violated a clause in 14th Amendment of the Constitution by participating in an “insurrection” against the US government. He had been convicted of trespassing earlier this year.
