Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows mentioned on her Facebook web page Saturday that her home was swatted.
In her Facebook put up, Ms. Bellows says her residence deal with was posted on the web and that an unknown particular person “swatted” her home. No one, together with Ms. Bellows, was at her residence.
Ms. Bellows famous that she and her workplace have acquired “escalating” threats as a result of she determined to take away former President Donald Trump from the state’s major poll final week.
“The non-stop threatening communications the people who work for me endured all day yesterday is unacceptable. It’s designed to scare not only me but also others into silence, to send a message,” she wrote. “I am so grateful to have such an amazing team of employees at the Department of Secretary of State.”
Swatting happens when an unknown individual makes a phony cellphone name or false violent crime report about an unsuspecting resident’s residence, a faculty or different public place to set off a police or SWAT workforce response.
Ms. Bellows got here onto the nationwide radar after she unilaterally eliminated former President Donald Trump from Maine’s presidential major poll Thursday underneath the U.S. Constitution’s rebel clause, changing into the second state to bar Mr. Trump from the 2024 poll.
The choice by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, coming because the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to determine on his eligibility, is the primary time a state election official has barred Mr. Trump from operating.
Her choice follows a 4-3 ruling earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court eradicating Mr. Trump from the GOP major, to be held on March 5, an order that additionally cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Several state and congressional officers had been swatted not too long ago, together with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, Rep. Brandon Williams, New York Republican, Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican and Democrat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
George Washington University legislation professor Jonathan Turley additionally says he was a sufferer of swatting Friday night time at his Fairfax residence, at some point after he appeared on Fox News Digital and spoke about how the Commonwealth of Virginia is responding to the crime of swatting.
