by The caller had alerted Maine authorities on Friday night, telling them that he had broken into the home of Shenna Bellows, the state’s top election official, a Democrat who had disqualified former President Donald J. Trump the night before. of the primary elections. ballot due to her actions during the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
No one was home when officers arrived, according to Maine State Police, which called the false report an attempted “strike,” intended to provoke a heavily armed police response.
In the days since, more fake calls and threats have arrived across the country. On Wednesday, the state capitol buildings in Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi and Mountain They were evacuated or locked down after authorities said they had received bomb threats that they described as false and unspecific. The FBI said it had no information to suggest any threat was credible.
The incidents intensified a climate of intimidation and harassment against public officials, including those responsible for overseeing ballot access and voting. Since 2020, election officials have faced increasing threats and difficult working conditions, compounded by rampant conspiracy theories about fraud. The episodes suggested that 2024 would be another heated election year.
Gabriel Sterling, a top elections official in Georgia who debunked Trump’s 2020 voter fraud claims in the battleground state, urged caution Wednesday.
“Don’t jump to conclusions about who is responsible,” Sterling said. wrote on social media. “There will be agents of chaos sowing discord by 2024. They want to increase tensions. “Don’t leave them.”
Sterling later said he was among public officials who had been crushed by callers falsely reporting crimes. Someone called 911 to report a shooting after a drug deal went bad, he wrote on X: “Everyone is fine. But this is wrong.”
Other prominent Republicans have also been crushed in recent weeks, including Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Ms. Greene, a right-wing provocateur and Trump ally, was home on Christmas morning when a man in New York called a Georgia suicide hotline and claimed he had just shot his girlfriend at the residence. Mrs. Greene and that she was about to commit suicide. The Associated Press reported.
Two days later, on December 27, It was Mr. Scott’s turn., he said. He was having dinner with his wife when it happened.
The previous week, several Colorado Supreme Court justices, who had blocked Trump from voting in that state in December, had also faced threats, but no details have been revealed.
Trump’s place on the ballot in several other states remains unresolved, adding another layer of uncertainty to his electoral and legal status, and the potential for backlash.
Ms. Bellows, Maine’s Secretary of State, condemned the instigator of the armed law enforcement response to her home. Maine State Police described the person she called as an unknown man.
“It is designed to scare not only me but also others into silence, to send a message,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.
According to Maine State Police, officers conducted a sweep inside Ms. Bellows’ home at her request after checking the exterior. The agency said the incident was still under investigation and it was working with law enforcement partners to bring special attention to appropriate locations.
Bellows drew scorn from Trump and his supporters after she ruled on December 28 that he was ineligible to be on the primary ballot under the third section of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits people who have participated in an insurrection from holding public office.
Trump is appealing the 34-page ruling, which made Maine the second state to block him from voting.
In Colorado, the first state to do so, the Denver Police Department said in a statement on Dec. 23 that it was providing additional patrols around the residences of Colorado Supreme Court justices in that city in response to reports of threats. and harassment.
Vikki Migoya, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Denver field office, said the office was aware of the situation and was working with local law enforcement authorities.
“We will vigorously continue investigations into any threats or uses of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of their motivation,” he said in an email Wednesday.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment on the threats against the judges and Ms. Bellows.
Trump and the Colorado Republican Party have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Trump’s disqualification.
At the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, an employee received a “hoax” email Wednesday about a bomb threat in the building, Courtney Floyd, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety, said in an email.
“A search was conducted and the all-clear was given,” said Ms. Floyd, who did not disclose further details.
Sterling, who testified in 2022 before the Jan. 6 committee, chronicled the events on social media.
Georgia has played an enormous role in both Trump’s electoral grievances and his deepening legal entanglements.
In August, the former president was indicted by an Atlanta-area grand jury for attempting to subvert the result of the 2020 election in Georgia, which Joseph R. Biden Jr. won. Republicans control the governor’s office and the state Legislature , but Georgia helped Democrats win the White House in 2020 and control of the US Senate in 2021. The criminal case is one of four proceedings against Trump.
At the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, a bomb threat was sent to a Michigan State Capitol Commission general email account around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, Michigan State Police reported. said in X.
Law enforcement officers used dogs to sweep the building, which state police said remained closed for the rest of the day as a precaution.
“The FBI will take over the investigation as multiple government agencies received the same threat,” Michigan State Police said.
Michigan has also been a flashpoint for Trump, who was defeated by Biden in the swing state in 2020 after winning there in 2016.
Last August, Matthew DePerno, a key orchestrator of efforts to help Trump try to overturn the 2020 election in Michigan and an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general in 2022, was charged with election noncompliance.
