A Colorado judge on Friday allowed Donald Trump to remain on the ballot for next year’s state election, but ruled that he had “participated in the insurrection” that prompted his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Judge Sarah Wallace’s decision, which will almost certainly be appealed, rejects a request by a group of Colorado voters to disqualify Donald Trump under a rarely used amendment to the United States Constitution that bars officials who participated in an “insurrection” from holding federal office, News.ro reports. with reference to the Reuters agency.

The judge found that as President Trump was not an “officer of the United States” who could be disqualified under the amendment.

The ruling is a victory for Trump, who is grappling with a number of similar challenges to his candidacy.

A Trump spokesman said Friday that the decision was “another nail in the coffin of un-American election challenges.”

“The American voter has a constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choice, and President Donald J. Trump is leading by a huge margin,” spokesman Stephen Cheng said in a statement.

However, the judge concluded that “Trump’s conduct and words were the actual cause and a substantial contributing factor” to the attack on the Capitol.

She found that Trump “participated in the January 6, 2021 uprising by incitement.”

The Colorado case, brought to court by a group of voters backed by Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, was the first to go to court and was seen as a test for a broader disqualification.

CREW President Noah Bookbinder said the group will appeal the decision.

“The court’s decision confirms what our clients have argued in this lawsuit: that Donald Trump has been involved in an insurgency based on his role since January 6,” Bookbinder said in a statement.

Voter advocates argued that Trump engaged in insurrection by spreading false claims of massive election fraud after his 2020 presidential defeat, calling supporters to a rally in Washington, D.C., and then urging them to march on the U.S. Capitol, where Congress was meeting to certify the election results. .

Afterward, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, attacking police and forcing lawmakers to flee in a failed attempt to stop the certification.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the former president had no ties to the far-right extremist groups that played a major role in the attack and that his words before the riots were protected by his right to free speech.

The ruling applies only to the Republican presidential primary and general election in Colorado.

Nonpartisan political forecasters rate the state as safe Democratic for the general election.

The ruling is the latest setback in efforts to disqualify Trump. Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have rejected efforts to keep him off the Republican primary ballot, but have not ruled on his eligibility to run in the November 2024 general election.

Colorado’s decision could be challenged in the state Supreme Court and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority of three Trump appointees, 6-3.