Maine blocks Trump from state’s 2024 primary ballot
The IndependentSign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Maine has become the second state to disqualify Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, claiming the former president is ineligible to run due to his involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. She added that Mr Trump was “aware of the likelihood for violence“ and “at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.” “The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimise a democratic election, and then chose to light a match,” Ms Bellows said in the filing. Following the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove Mr Trump from the state’s primary ballot, she invited Mr Trump as well as the plaintiffs to file briefs addressing the impact of the case. Despite this, Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, predictably blasted the decision calling Ms Bellows a “virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden.” Mr Trump and his allies have repeatedly amplified a conspiracy theory that the multiple lawsuits and criminal indictments against him are part of a wider effort directed by the president to keep Mr Trump out of office.