Lawsuit Seeks To Remove Rep. Scott Perry From PA Ballot

PENNSYLVANIA — A liberal activist filed a lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Scott Perry this week, claiming Perry should be barred from running for office over his efforts to keep President Donald Trump in office and block the transfer of power to Joe Biden, according to multiple reports citing court documents.

The seven-page lawsuit filed by Gene Stilp seeks to block Perry from appearing on Pennsylvania's 2024 primary ballot and argues Perry isn’t eligible to run under the Constitution's 14th Amendment, according to court documents obtained by PennLive.com. The 14th Amendment bars anyone who has "engaged in insurrection and rebellion" from holding public office.

Perry, a Republican, is expected to run for a seventh term, although candidates cannot file paperwork yet to qualify for Pennsylvania's April 23 primary ballot.

Perry represents the 10th district in Pennsylvania in U.S. Congress, which includes all of Dauphin County and parts of both Cumberland and York counties.

The challenge comes on the heels of Maine’s Democratic secretary of state removing Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the clause and a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Trump from the ballot there. Trump is expected to appeal both decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a statement provided to the Associated Press, Perry's lawyer suggested that those appeals would ensure that the lawsuit against Perry is nullified.

“This lawsuit was filed by a partisan activist who clearly has no regard or understanding of how our Democratic Republic works," John P. Rowley wrote. "It is but the latest effort by an extremist to disqualify a duly elected official with whom he disagrees. We are confident the Supreme Court will put an end to this lunacy.”

Stilp's lawsuit claims Perry played a role in trying to use the Department of Justice to help Trump stall the certification of the election by installing an acting attorney general who would be receptive to Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Using cell phone records, the lawsuit connects Perry to several White House officials and Trump campaign staff members and accuses him of discussing how to overturn the 2020 presidential election and disrupt the Jan. 6 certification process, reports said.

The lawsuit also names Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt as a defendant, the AP reported.

Perry has not been charged with a crime, although he is the only sitting member of Congress whose cellphone was seized by the FBI in its investigation into efforts to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Last month, a federal judge ordered Perry to turn over hundreds of pages of texts and emails to investigators detailing his connection to Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

A total of 1,659 of Perry's texts and emails must be turned over, the judge said in his ruling. Perry had argued he was protected under the Constitution's “speech or debate” clause, which prevents prosecutors from disrupting the private business of Congress, according to the AP.

Perry did not appeal the judge's decision, his lawyer told the AP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.