Crusading AG Frey Leaves Maine Behind in His Quest to Slay Dragons Across America

Rep. William Tuell (R-East Machias) introduced a disarmingly simple bill to Maine’s Legislature last month consisting of only one sentence. His measure seeks to “direct the attorney general to drop his lawsuit against big oil about climate change.” What’s left unsaid by Rep. Tuell’s bill is a broader sentiment that Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey may be on a quixotic quest to score political points that increasingly leaves ordinary Mainers left behind in the dust.

Since last November’s election of President Donald Trump, Attorney General Frey seems to have gone into overdrive in an effort to be seen as the icon of partisan Democrats everywhere: the great Trump slayer.

Over the last three months alone, Frey has signed on with his fellow attorneys general in blue states across the country to challenge the president on everything from immigration enforcement to access to gender-affirming care to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s ability to review federal spending to his effort to hold British Petroleum and other big oil companies to account for deceiving an unwitting public about climate change.

In no less than a half-dozen lawsuits and joint statements in this short period alone, Frey has cast Maine’s lot in with a slew of other states in crusades ranging from the fringe to the far-reaching.

Of course some of this is inevitable. Last month his predecessor and Maine Governor Janet Mills told President Trump “we’ll see you in court” over the question of the state’s compliance with an executive order banning biological males from competing in female sports. Days later, both Maine officials received a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warning them that federal law has priority over Maine’s in that instance.

“The Department of Justice does not want to have to sue states or state entities, or to seek termination of their federal funds,” Bondi wrote. “We only want states and state entities to comply with the law.”

But by the time of that February 21 stand off between the chief executives of Maine and America, Frey was already off and running, filing suits and staking positions on issues well south of the Piscataqua River.

Meanwhile, Frey’s office is locked in litigation with two Christian schools in Auburn and Bangor who argue they are being forced to ingest a “poison pill” if they are to receive the public funding that to which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they are entitled in 2022. As with the conflict with the federal government over transgender athletes, those lawsuits center on inconsistencies between Maine’s Human Rights Act and their religious beliefs.

All of these actions share a distinct ideological bent, and taken together they form an argument that Frey is using the office of the attorney general in a more politically-driven manner than at any time in recent memory. Looking back over the last six months, even, a stark departure emerges from the period before November 2024 — when a greater proportion of the AG’s caseload focused on issues like fraud or investigating the use of deadly force by law enforcement — to the more distinctly partisan present.

There is potentially more to this politicized bent than the return of the Trump administration, though. Frey joined the suit against “big oil,” for instance, at a time when he was being challenged for his job by Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney, who is seen as being even further to the left ideologically.

Another possible motivation for Frey’s intensified embrace of polarizing political cases could be a continuing effort to re-shape his image following a scandal nearly two years ago when he was discovered to be carrying on an intimate relationship with a subordinate in his office. At that time, he apologized for “an error in judgement.”

That 2023 scandal led to calls for changing the way Maine selects its constitutional officers, like the attorney general and the secretary of state. Currently, these positions are elected by the legislature, but there have now been repeated calls to amend the state’s constitution and have them directly elected by the public.

[RELATED: These Constitutional Amendments Would Give Mainers the Right to Vote for Secretary of State and Attorney General]

In parallel to Frey’s partisan campaigning, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows led a failed effort last year to strike Donald Trump from the ballot, but it took the intercession of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ironically, changing the selection of these officers from the legislature to the electorate at large could make the roles less political — especially when state government is in the sole hands of one political party.

For now, Mainers like Rep. Tuell are left wondering what good can come of an attorney general tilting an windmills, and wishing instead that the state’s chief law enforcement officer would focus their concern to issues that more directly affect the folks back home.