Hearing officer agrees Trump engaged in insurrection, but tells state elections board it’s up to courts to decide former president’s place on ballot

CHICAGO — A state elections hearing officer agreed with objectors that former President Donald Trump “engaged in insurrection” at the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but said he believed it is up to the courts and not the State Board of Elections to decide whether to remove him from the March 19 Illinois primary ballot. The nonbinding recommendation from Clark Erickson, a …