AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s four members of Congress did not offer much in the way of new comments following former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment Monday.
Trump, who remains the Republican favorite to once again face President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, and 18 associates were charged Monday in Georgia with allegedly scheming to illegally overturn the 2020 election results and stop the peaceful transition of power.
The 98-page indictment out of Fulton County comes after an investigation that lasted more than two years and represents the fourth criminal case Trump is now facing. No other former or sitting president had been indicted in the nation’s history.
Reaction from Maine’s congressional delegation has become fairly predictable when it comes to each indictment, with the other three cases against Trump relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, classified documents and hush money allegedly paid to a pornographic actress.
“No one is above the law,” U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s Trump-friendly 2nd District, said in a word-for-word copy of the statement he released after the last three indictments. “Our legal system is built upon the principle of innocence until proven guilty and we should let the process play out without bias or political interference.”
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, reiterated Tuesday that Trump is entitled to his day in court: “These are now matters for the courts to decide, and we will just have to see what happens,” she said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said he had no comment on the latest indictment.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who represents the 1st District, has been the most outspoken of the four members when it comes to Trump’s indictments and said Tuesday his “clear contempt for our free elections is a stain on the presidency.”
“Mr. Trump tried to blackmail Georgia’s top election official to illegally fabricate votes in an aggressive and desperate attempt to cling to power,” Pingree said in a statement.
Trump’s attorneys called Monday’s indictment that includes 13 felony counts against the former president and other charges against top allies including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows “shocking and absurd.”
The sweeping indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleges a wide-ranging criminal enterprise among Trump and his allies as they tried to overturn the election results.
Numerous recounts confirmed Biden prevailed over Trump in Georgia to win the state’s 16 electoral votes, but Trump called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to urge him to “find” nearly 12,000 votes, which was the number he needed to surpass Biden.
