Trump Says Maine Secretary of State Should Recuse Herself From Weighing in on His Ballot Eligibility

Earlier on Wednesday, we wrote about the Michigan Supreme Court refusing to remove 2024 Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot.

The upcoming decision by Maine's Democrat Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, as to Trump's inclusion on the ballot there was prompted by the filing of petitions to her office on December 1, when the 2024 presidential candidates were announced, according to reporting by WMTW in Portland. Two challenges, like the ones in Colorado and Michigan, rely on the 14th Amendment argument.

Two petitions say Trump shouldn't be allowed to run for president because he violated the U.S. Constitution by engaging in an insurrection, referring to Jan. 6, 2021.
A Portland law firm says Trump should be disqualified, citing the 22nd amendment, saying because Trump claims he won the 2020 election, he is in turn disqualifying himself under the term limit rules.

But after the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to keep Donald Trump off its ballot using Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, the Secretary of State's office delayed weighing in before Christmas (it was thought there would be a decision on Dec. 22):

“The challengers were very excited to see the ruling out of Colorado last night,” said Benjamin Gaines, an attorney for challengers Ethan Strimling, Kimberly Rosen and Tom Saviello.[...]
Strimling, Rosen and Saviello also cited Section 3 in a challenge to Trump’s appearing on the Maine primary ballot filed with Bellows this month. Bellows heard arguments from the challengers and attorneys for Trump at a hearing last week.[...]
Bellows had been expected to rule on the challenges by the end of the day Friday but announced Wednesday afternoon that she now plans to issue a decision early next week.
A spokesperson for Bellows said the change in timeline is due to the Colorado ruling as well as technical difficulties in the secretary of state’s office that have interfered with deadlines for the parties to submit briefs.

In the meantime, a second claim by one of the petitioners challenging Trump's inclusion on the ballot, Paul Gordon of Portland, brings the number of petitions to three:

....Gordon’s challenge took a different tack, arguing that Trump is not eligible to be on the ballot because he claims to have won the 2020 election, which would have been his second term. The 22nd Amendment states that no person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice.

Now, Trump's legal team is speaking out about Bellows' previous statements on social media regarding Jan.6, 2021 — and Trump:

Former President Trump on Wednesday demanded the Maine secretary of state recuse herself from her upcoming decision on the former president’s ballot eligibility under the 14th Amendment, citing her past statements about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.[...]
On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers wrote Bellows a letter demanding she disqualify herself over three tweets she previously issued referencing Jan. 6, including those in which she described the attack as an insurrection.

The letter continued:

Using similar language, the Challengers have claimed that the events of January 6, 2021, constituted a violent insurrection and that President Trump somehow poses a danger from which Maine voters must be protected. Thus, the Secretary has already passed judgment on the Challengers’ core assertions.

Bellows posted twice about the incident at the U.S. Capitol — one on the first anniversary, the other "the day Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial." Decide for yourself. Here are those posts by Bellows:

One year after the violent insurrection, it’s important to do all we can to safeguard our elections. https://t.co/0MUZNUuuim
— Shenna Bellows (@shennabellows) January 7, 2022

The Jan 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Today 57 Senators including King & Collins found Trump guilty. That’s short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed.
— Shenna Bellows (@shennabellows) February 13, 2021

In case you can't read the posts on X, she wrote on Jan. 7, 2022:

One year after the violent insurrection, it’s important to do all we can to safeguard our elections.

This was from Feb. 13, 2021:

The Jan 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Today 57 Senators including King & Collins found Trump guilty. That’s short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed.

A spokesperson for Bellows’ office said the secretary is not commenting on the Trump legal team's demand that she recuse herself "while the matter is pending."

Now, it's Wednesday, Dec. 27, and there's still no decision from Bellows. We'll keep you posted on where the story goes from here.