Witnesses called by Donald Trump on Thursday in the hearing to address whether he is ineligible to appear on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot recalled a “festive” gathering prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack in Washington, D.C. – despite being confronted with evidence of people shouting for an invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

A Denver judge heard from multiple people who attended Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse before the deadly mob attack. They testified to their belief that there was no insurrection on Jan. 6 and that “antifa” – meaning “anti-fascist” activists – was the real source of violence. The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack found no meaningful connection to antifa.

Since Monday, lawyers for four Republican and two unaffiliated voters seeking to exclude Trump from next year’s ballot have argued the former president is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The provision, enacted after the Civil War, bars members of Congress or “an officer of the United States” from occupying state or federal office if they took an oath to the U.S. Constitution, but subsequently “engaged in insurrection.”

It is an open question in the case whether Jan. 6 was an insurrection and if Trump engaged in it.

Trump called as a witness Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who joined virtually from his D.C. office. Buck described his experience on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as Capitol police attempted to usher members to safety as the mob breached the building.

At the same time, Buck compared the Capitol attack to previous disruptions, like the 2020 racial justice protests or the 2016 sit-in by Democratic representatives following a mass shooting in Florida. Buck conceded there were key differences between those demonstrations and the Jan. 6 violence.

Buck, a former chair of the Colorado GOP, spent much of his testimony critiquing the report of the select committee that investigated the Capitol attack, which found Trump bore responsibility. Although the panel included Democrats and Republicans appointed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Buck labeled it a “political” process that only furthered the viewpoints of those who believed Trump was culpable.

“I asked Kevin (McCarthy, then the GOP leader) to get his permission to serve on that committee because I thought it was important that witnesses were cross-examined and documents were challenged,” Buck testified. “Kevin told me he did not want me serving on that committee or any other Republican serving.”

On cross-examination, however, Buck admitted he was unfamiliar with how the committee actually conducted its work, and had little knowledge about the more than 1,000 interviews the committee performed.

“You don’t dispute that the majority of people who were interviewed by the committee and who testified were Trump administration officials and other Republicans?” asked Sean Grimsley, an attorney for the petitioners. “You know there were a lot of Republicans who testified?”

“I do,” said Buck, whose recent announcement that he is not running for re-election cited, in part, the “lying” by some GOP leaders about the 2020 election being stolen.

Three other witnesses also spoke of their experience attending the pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6, but they did not participate in the Capitol assault. All of them refused to say under oath that the 2020 election was not “stolen” from Trump.

Amy Kremer, who heads Women for America First and helped organize the Ellipse event at which Trump spoke, testified about her displeasure after Election Day 2020 that the Republican Party was not doing more to contest the allegedly suspicious results of the presidential election. She organized multiple rallies in D.C., the last of which was on Jan. 6.

“These are patriotic, freedom-living citizens who really just dropped everything in their lives at a moment’s notice to come to Washington, D.C. because they felt the election had been stolen,” she said, adding that the Jan. 6 crowd was “happy.”

On cross-examination, Kremer was shown video of attendees yelling, “Take the Capitol,” and “Invade the Capitol” while Trump spoke. She also saw clips of the pro-Trump mob assaulting police officers.

“Were the individuals you saw there attacking the Capitol and chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence’ patriotic, freedom-loving citizens and happy warriors?” questioned Grimsley. He also asked her who, exactly, had stolen the election.

“We don’t know who stole the election,” Kremer responded.

“Shadowy figures?” Grimsley asked.

“We don’t know,” she answered. Kremer closed by testifying she did not believe Trump incited violence that day.

“That’s just not him,” she said.

Thomas Van Flein, the chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., discussed going to the Ellipse early on Jan. 6 with his boss. He called the gathering “pretty festive.” The petitioners’ lawyers also showed him the video of attendees chanting, “Invade the Capitol.”

“It wouldn’t shock me if there was someone who’s a moron who would say something like that in a crowd,” Van Flein said. He, too, declined to say definitively whether the election was “stolen.”

Finally, Trump’s lawyers called Tom Bjorklund, the treasurer of the Colorado Republican Party. He drove from Colorado to D.C. to attend the Jan. 6 rally, and took body armor with him “in case I got shot by antifa.”

Bjorklund said “it was tempting” to go into the Capitol, but he did not. He claimed he identified an antifa member on the grounds during the attack. The petitioners’ lawyers played videos and asked Bjorklund if he could identify antifa activists.

“Mr. Bjorklund, the truth is that none of those people were antifa. They were a mob sent by President Trump to attack the Capitol building,” said attorney Nikhel Sus.

“I don’t think there was any kind of insurrection,” Bjorklund responded. “I just felt like it’s kind of an insult to the insurrectionists around the world. Because Republicans just mad about an election hardly rises to the level of an insurrection.”

The hearing is scheduled to conclude on Friday with two final witnesses. The parties agreed to return on Nov. 15 to make closing arguments, triggering the short window for Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace to issue a decision.

The case is Anderson et al. v. Griswold.