Former President Donald Trump demanded that the Democratic Maine secretary of state recuse herself in a case surrounding Trump’s eligibility to be on the primary ballot over her past comments on the Jan. 6 riot.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is set to deliver a decision on Trump’s eligibility for the state’s primary within the coming days. The state does not require a lawsuit to determine eligibility but allows challengers to appeal the decision. In a Wednesday letter, Trump’s lawyers demanded that Bellows recuse herself due to an alleged “personal bias.”
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“President Trump requests that the Secretary disqualify herself from this matter because she has already concluded that President Trump engaged in insurrection — a determination that she made well before the submission of evidence or argument in this current matter,” the letter read. “Because the Secretary has exhibited a personal bias in this matter, she should disqualify herself from further proceedings.”
The letter quoted three tweets from Bellows, posted in 2021 and 2022, in which she called for impeachment and bemoaned that Trump’s second impeachment was unsuccessful.
“The Jan. 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election,” she said on Feb. 13, 2021. “Today 57 Senators including King & Collins found Trump guilty. That’s short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed.”
“Not saying not disappointed,” she continued in a follow-up tweet. “He should have been impeached. But history will not treat him or those who voted against impeachment kindly.”
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Bellows’s office for comment.
Challenges to Trump’s eligibility over 14th Amendment concerns, which bans those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office, have been filed in several states. Colorado became the first to remove him from the state’s primary after a decision from the state’s Supreme Court, setting up a likely challenge at the United States Supreme Court.
