Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

CHARLESTON — Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined with the West Virginia Republican Party and attorneys for former Republican president Donald Trump in making a motion to dismiss a lawsuit meant to keep Trump off of the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot.

In a filing Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office – representing the State of West Virginia — filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed last month by Texas resident and write-in presidential candidate John Anthony Castro.

Castro is seeking a federal court order prohibiting Trump from being placed on the 2024 Republican primary ballot in West Virginia, arguing that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents Trump from holding future federal offices.

Castro believes that Trump’s words and actions leading up to the certification of the 2020 presidential election by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, helped fuel a riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters attempting to stop the certification of President Joe Biden.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, is one of two-dozen lawsuits filed by Castro in other states attempting to block Trump’s ballot access. Castro claims that allowing Trump on West Virginia’s ballot next year will harm Castro’s ability to campaign and fundraise, though Castro has reported no donations to date to the Federal Election Commission.

The Attorney General’s Office called Castro’s lawsuit frivolous, aimed at getting in front of non-Trump appointed federal judges and making the Trump campaign spend money defending against the lawsuits.

“Lawsuits — especially those asking federal courts to intervene directly in national elections — are serious business,” wrote Deputy Solicitor General Michael Williams. “They should not be used as tools to bankrupt someone or harass a politician that a plaintiff might disfavor.”

Williams argued that Castro has no standing to bring a lawsuit, given that the candidate filing period in West Virginia doesn’t begin until Jan. 8, 2024, and has not yet suffered any harm. Williams also said that Trump’s alleged actions on Jan. 6, 2021, do not rise to a violation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that no person can be a federal office holder if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the federal government.

The West Virginia Republican Party filed their motion to dismiss Castro’s lawsuit Tuesday, and the Trump campaign filed a motion to dismiss last week. The Secretary of State’s Office, also represented by the Attorney General’s Office, filed motions last week agreeing with recommendations by U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn to deny an emergency application from Castro requesting an expedited preliminary injunction and preliminary bench trial.