By Jack Queen
(Reuters) -A trial began on Monday in Colorado to determine whether former U.S. President is disqualified from the state's ballot in the 2024 election over his purported role in a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol aimed at keeping him in office.
The one-week trial before a Denver judge could also be a test of whether Trump's opponents elsewhere have a viable path to keep him off the ballot under a rarely-used, Civil War-era provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people who have engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" from holding federal office.
Trump faces similar lawsuits brought by advocacy groups in Michigan and Minnesota, but the Colorado case is the first to go to trial.
Trump, a Republican, has denied wrongdoing during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters who wanted to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat 's November 2020 presidential election win.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Eric Olson, said in his opening statement in court that Trump urged his supporters to violence in a speech before the riot and continued to encourage them on social media.
"He used 'fight' 20 times in that speech, 'peacefully' only once," Olson said.
A lawyer for Trump, Scott Gesler, denied that Trump incited supporters to violence and said it would set a dangerous precedent to disqualify him based on "legal theories that have never been embraced by a state or federal court."
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