Watchdog sues to block ‘Cowboys for Trump’ founder from holding office

A watchdog group filed a lawsuit on Monday in New Mexico against “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin, seeking to remove the Otero county commissioner from office because of his role in the Jan. 6 rioting last year.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) along with several law firms, filed the lawsuit in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.

The group said Griffin, who was found guilty on Tuesday of illegally entering the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, violated the third section of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits elected officials from holding office and engaging in a rebellion or insurrection.

CREW President Noah Bookbinder said politicians who violated their oath of office by participating in or aiding an insurrection “must be barred from public office.”

“Couy Griffin has used his public platform to spread the false narrative that the election was stolen from Donald Trump and to defend the attack on our Capitol,” Bookbinder said in a statement. “His actions on January 6th were part of and contributed to an insurrection, and his tenure in government continues to be a threat to our democracy.”

The Hill has reached out to Griffin’s legal team for comment.

After just one day of testimony, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden found Griffin guilty Tuesday of a misdemeanor offense — illegally entering or remaining in a restricted ground — but acquitted him of a disorderly conduct charge, The Associated Press reported.

Griffin, 48, has represented Otero County since 2019, the same year he founded Cowboys for Trump.

Griffin, who once said, “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” engaged in repeated rallies with Cowboys for Trump to dispute the results of the 2020 election, which former President Trump and his supporters falsely claim was stolen, according to the lawsuit.

The CREW lawsuit shows pictures of Griffin at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, wearing a suit and a cowboy hat. In one photo, he’s allegedly holding a bullhorn and addressing a large crowd below him, before leading them in a prayer.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re not gonna take no for an answer. We’re not going to get our election stolen from us from China. So this is an America that’s had enough right here. … Anything to get our country back,” he allegedly said at the rally, according to the lawsuit.

In videos uploaded to the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page the day after the rioting, Griffin applauded the “Stop the Steal” rally as the “most historic and amazing thing that I have ever seen” and later said “you’re gonna see a whole ‘nother revolution.”

“China will never take over Washington D.C. Because we will lead a charge in there that, you thought yesterday was a big day, it’ll be nothing like compared to the next one,” he allegedly said in the video, according to the lawsuit.

Griffin was arrested on Jan. 19 and jailed for two weeks.

At trial, prosecutors charged him with climbing up bike racks and onto a plywood ramp on Jan. 6 to shout down to a pro-Trump mob, yelling that the 2020 election was stolen, according to the AP. Prosecutors also said he climbed over a stone wall and entered a restricted area outside of the Capitol building and said “This is our house. … We should all be armed.”

The defense had argued Griffin peacefully attended the Jan. 6 rioting and led a prayer on the steps of the Capitol, per the AP.

Amber Fayerberg, an attorney in the suit, said Griffin “betrayed his oath of office and his country.”

“If we intend for our democracy to survive for another 200 years, and beyond, we must hold such conduct to account,” Fayerberg said in a statement.

More than 770 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states in connection to the Jan. 6 rioting.