Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was targeted in a swatting incident Friday night, days after she ruled that Donald Trump is not eligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot due on his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Police say they received a call from an unknown male around 8:15 p.m. Friday night claiming he broke into Bellows’ home. When they arrived, officers found no one inside or outside the home, according to local station WGME13.
The incident remains under investigation.
Swatting is the practice of making a false report to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.
Bellows confirmed the incident in a statement on Facebook Saturday, noting that it happened after her address was posted online.
“We were not home yesterday when threats escalated, and our home address was posted online. It was a good thing because our home was swatted last night. That’s when someone calls in a fake emergency to evoke a strong law enforcement response to scare the target. Swatting incidents have resulted in casualties although thankfully this one did not,” Bellows wrote.
“This behavior is unacceptable. The non-stop threatening communications the people who work for me endured all day yesterday is unacceptable,” she continued. “It’s designed to scare not only me but also others into silence, to send a message.”
On Thursday Bellows, a Democrat, said she concluded that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution prohibits Trump from serving in office again due to his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Trump campaign slammed the ruling and accused Bellows of being a “virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat.”
“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy.”
Trump also attacked Bellows on his Truth Social app and posted a link to her biographical information.
