A bogus emergency call to police led officers to respond to the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Friday evening, just a day after she ousted the former president

Donald

Trump withdraws from US presidential primaries under the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

She becomes the latest elected politician to be targeted by swatting, calling 911 with the intention that a large presence of first responders, including SWAT teams, will show up at a home.

Bellows was not home when the swat call was made and responding officers found nothing suspicious.

Suspects in swatting cases are being arrested and charged as states consider harsher penalties.

Republican

US

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was the target of a beating at her Georgia residence on Christmas morning, the congresswoman and

local

the police said.

A man in New York called the Georgia suicide hotline and claimed he had shot his girlfriend at Greene’s house and was going to kill himself. Police said investigators were working to identify the caller and build a criminal case.

Another New York man was sentenced to three months in prison in August for making threatening phone calls to Greene’s office in Washington, DC.

Although the Maine Department of Public Safety did not share a suspected motive for the attempted swatting of Bellows, she had no doubts

S

it stemmed from her decision to remove Trump from the ballot. The attempted swatting came after a conservative activist posted her home address on social media.

And it was posted in anger and with violent intent by those who sent threatening communications to me, my family and my office, Bellows told The Associated Press in a phone call on Saturday.

According to the Maine Department of Public Safety, emergency services received a call from an unknown man who said he had broken into a home in Manchester.

The address the man gave was Bellow’s house. Bellows and her husband were away for the weekend. Maine State Police responded to what the Public Safety Department said, but it ultimately turned out to be a swat call.

Police conducted an exterior search of the house and then checked the inside at Bellow’s request. Nothing suspicious was found and police are investigating further.

The Maine State Police are working with our law enforcement partners to pay special attention to all appropriate locations, the public safety statement said.

Bellows said the intimidation factors won’t work. This is what I don’t do differently. I do my job to uphold the constitution and the rule of law.

Besides Bellows and Greene, there are other high-profile politicians who have ruined the targets of calls

American GOP

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Ohio Att

orne

j. Gen.

eral

Dave Jost.

Bellows said she, her family and her office staff have been threatened since her decision to remove Trump from the ballot. At least one Republican lawmaker in Maine wants to pursue impeachment proceedings against her.

Not only have there been threatening communications, but there have also been dehumanizing fake images posted online and even fake text threads attributed to me, said Bellows, who has campaigned for civil rights.

before before

become Secretary of State.

And my previous work has taught me that dehumanizing people is the first step in creating an environment that leads to attacks and violence against that person, she said. It is extremely dangerous when the rhetoric has escalated to the point where it dehumanizes me and threatens me, my loved ones, and the people who work for me.

She said Maine people have a strong tradition of being able to disagree on important issues without violence.

“I think it is extremely important for everyone to de-escalate the rhetoric and remember the values ​​that make our democratic republic and here in Maine, our state, so great,” she said.

The Trump campaign said it would appeal Bellow’s decision in Maine state courts, and Bellows stayed her ruling until that court system decides the case.

The Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month removed Trump from the ballot in that state, a decision that was also put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decided whether he should be disbarred under the Civil War-era provision of the insurrection clause.

which that

bans those involved in the uprising from holding office.

___Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.