A fake emergency call to police resulted in officers responding to the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Friday night, just a day after she removed former US president Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the US Constitution’s insurrection clause.
Key points:
- “Swatting” involves making a phone call to emergency services with the intent of provoking a SWAT team response
- Ms Bellows was not at home when the swatting call against her was made, and nothing suspicious was found
- US states are considering stronger penalties for the tactic, which has also been used to target conservative politicians
Ms Bellows, a Democrat, becomes the latest elected politician to become a target of “swatting”, which involves making a phone call to emergency services with the intent that a large first responder presence, including SWAT teams, will show up at a residence.
She was not home when the swatting call was made, and responding officers found nothing suspicious.
While the Maine Department of Public Safety did not share a suspected motive for the swatting attempt against Ms Bellows, she had no doubts it stemmed from her decision to remove Mr Trump from the state’s ballot.
The swatting attempt came after a conservative activist posted her home address on social media.
“It was posted in anger and with violent intent by those who have been extending threatening communications toward me, my family and my office,” Ms Bellows told the Associated Press news agency on Saturday.
A call was made to emergency services from an unknown man saying he had broken into a house in the Maine town of Manchester, according to the state’s public safety department.
The address the man gave was Ms Bellows’s home, but Ms Bellows and her husband were away for a holiday weekend. Maine State Police responded to what the department said ultimately turned out to be a swatting call.
Police conducted an exterior sweep of the house and then checked inside at Ms Bellows’s request. Nothing suspicious was found, and police continue to investigate.
Ms Bellows said she would not be intimidated.
“Here’s what I’m not doing differently. I’m doing my job to uphold the constitution, the rule of law,” she said.
Ms Bellows added she, her family and her office workers have been threatened since her decision to remove Mr Trump from Maine’s ballot.
At least one Republican lawmaker in the state also wants to pursue impeachment against her.
“Not only have there been threatening communications, but there have been dehumanising fake images posted online and even fake text threads attributed to me,” said Ms Bellows, who worked in civil rights prior to becoming secretary of state.
“My previous work taught me that dehumanising people is the first step in creating an environment that leads to attacks and violence against that person.
“It is extraordinarily dangerous for the rhetoric to have escalated to the point of dehumanising me and threatening me, my loved ones and the people who work for me.”
The Trump campaign said it would appeal Ms Bellows’s decision to Maine’s state courts, and Ms Bellows suspended her ruling until that court system rules on the case.
The Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month removed Mr Trump from that state’s ballot, a decision that was also stayed until the US Supreme Court decides whether he should be barred under the insurrection clause, a Civil War-era provision which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States from holding office.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene targeted on Christmas Day
Suspects in swatting cases are being arrested and charged as US states contemplate stronger penalties.
Republican US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was the target of a swatting attempt at her Georgia residence on Christmas morning, the congresswoman and local police said.
A man in New York called the Georgia suicide hotline claiming he had shot his girlfriend at Ms Greene’s home 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 in August to three months in prison for making threatening phone calls to Ms Greene’s office in Washington DC.
Beyond Ms Bellows and Ms Greene, other high-profile American politicians who have been swatting call targets include US Senator Rick Scott of Florida, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Ohio Attorney-General Dave Yost.
AP