Ex-law enforcement officer Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) says he’ll be serving as a fact witness in defense of former President Donald Trump in a key trial.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) announced on Tuesday that he will be testifying in defense of former President Donald Trump in a Colorado lawsuit that threatens to kick him off the 2024 primary ballot.
Mr. Nehls said in a post on X that he will be serving as a fact witness for President Trump’s defense in a lawsuit in Colorado that is pursuing a novel legal theory under the 14th Amendment that seeks to disqualify the former president from the ballot based on the claim that he participated in an “insurrection.”
🚨BREAKING: I'm honored to announce I will be serving as a fact witness for President Trump's defense in the 14th Amendment removal sham trial in Colorado.
— Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) October 31, 2023
I was at the doors on January 6, face to face with protestors, and I know firsthand there was NO INSURRECTION.
This sham…
Calling the Colorado trial a “sham,” Mr. Nehls said that he was at the doors on Jan. 6, “face to face with protesters, and I know firsthand there was NO INSURRECTION.”
“This sham trial is clear election interference, and it has no basis in fact. I look forward to providing my eyewitness account of that,” added Mr. Nehls, who served for nearly 30 years in law enforcement before entering politics.
Besides serving as an officer and elected sheriff, Mr. Nehls also served for 21 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, experience that would further inform his take on whether what happened on Jan. 6 was an insurrection, as many of his opponents have claimed.
Mr. Nehls was also one of the 147 Republicans who on Jan. 6, 2021, voted against certifying the electoral votes for then president-elect Joe Biden.
President Trump was acquitted on a second impeachment charge that he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and no criminal charges of “insurrection” have ever been brought against him.
Mr. Nehls previously said that he believed that the National Guard was delayed in arriving at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving had been waiting for guidance from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“It’s almost like there were individuals within the current administration that wanted this to happen,” Mr. Nehls told Just The News in an interview last December. “All the intelligence was there, and what did they have? What did they have? They had bicycle racks. … A bicycle rack couldn’t keep your cat in your yard.”
By Tom Ozimek
