The allegations against Platner could constitute gross sexual assault, a felony crime in Maine law used to prosecute rape, according to a Maine criminal defense lawyer.

The recent sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner aren’t just the political flashpoint that forced a rising populist Democrat to suspend a major Senate campaign. They also potentially amount to criminal conduct.

Jenny Racicot, 41, had been casually dating Platner for about two years when he came to the home where she was staying in 2021 and sexually assaulted her, while she repeatedly told him to stop, according to allegations she made in interviews with Politico and CNN.

Those allegations could constitute gross sexual assault, a felony crime in Maine law used to prosecute rape, according to William T. Bly, a Maine criminal defense lawyer. However, he said Racicot, who didn’t report the incident to law enforcement in 2021, would need to decide now that she wants to report it.

“If you take a look at the statutes, you can see all the different ways it could be charged, but it is gross sexual assault,” Bly said.

“A lot of it’s going to come down to victim credibility and what, if any, corroborating evidence can they get?” Bly added.

Racicot said the assault took place in the village of Marlboro, which is in Maine’s Hancock County.

In a lengthy email to USA TODAY, Hancock County District Attorney Bob Granger said his office cannot comment on whether any criminal investigation exists, noting that Maine law criminalizes unlawfully disseminating information from an investigative record.

Granger added that his office wouldn’t ordinarily open an investigation unless a victim makes a formal sexual assault complaint to law enforcement for the area where the crime happened, and that victims of sexual assaults may be reluctant to move forward criminally for “a number of valid reasons,” including “horrendous emotional and psychological pain.”

However, Granger said his office takes formal complaints seriously.

“If a victim exercises the courage to come forward to law enforcement with credible allegations, we owe it to both them and the general public to carefully examine those claims,” he said.

Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for Maine’s Department of Public Safety, told USA TODAY in an email that the Maine State Police haven’t received or investigated any criminal complaints involving Platner. USA TODAY also left a voice message at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office seeking information on any complaints.

USA TODAY was unable to reach Racicot for comment.

Ryan Barto, the communications director for Platner’s campaign, didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Platner has previously denied that he sexually assaulted anyone.

“This is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It’s not real,” Platner said in a video posted to Instagram July 8, in which he didn’t address the specifics of Racicot’s account, but said her allegations were surfacing in the media in an effort to get his name off the ballot.

“Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end,” he said.

Here’s a look at what kinds of charges could be in play if a complaint were lodged and prosecutors chose to move forward, what penalties they could involve, and what a defense might look like:

Prosecuting rape in Maine

Gross sexual assault, Maine’s central felony rape statute, can be prosecuted in many different forms, depending on the nature of the allegations. For instance, if a defendant compelled another person to engage in a sex act, the person could face a “Class A” assault felony charge, Maine’s most serious class of gross sexual assault.

Other forms of sexual assault in Maine, such as getting someone to engage in a sex act by threat or being criminally negligent about whether the other person consented, amount to lower-class felonies.

Racicot alleged that Platner was heavily intoxicated when he entered her home uninvited and ignored her repeated pleas for him to stop. She told Politico she cut off contact after telling him the incident was not consensual.

If prosecutors were considering gross sexual assault charges against Platner, the time that has passed since the alleged assault wouldn’t prohibit them from moving forward. Maine allows prosecutors to bring gross sexual assault felony charges anytime within 20 years of the offense.

What kind of penalties could Platner face if charged and convicted?

Defendants convicted of the most serious form of gross sexual assault – Class A felonies – can be imprisoned for up to 30 years. Class B and Class C gross sexual felonies allow judges to sentence a defendant to up to 10 years and five years in prison, respectively.

Maximum penalties often don’t reflect the actual penalties defendants receive from a judge. In Maine, judges take various factors into account when determining the appropriate sentence, such as defendants’ age, the nature of the underlying crime, their criminal history, and evidence that reflects on their character.

“It’s not just the classification of the crime, but what are the details that come out,” Bly said. “There’s so many different things to look at.”

What kinds of defenses could Platner raise?

Bly said Platner’s potential defense, if he were to face charges, would be driven by details in the case that may currently be largely unknown.

Still, one potential line of defense is already clear: Platner has suggested that the timing of Racicot’s account is intentional. The allegations emerging just days before a July 13 deadline to remove him as Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee, Platner said, indicate they were politically motivated.

“This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. And that’s why this is occurring,” Platner said in his July 8 Instagram video message.

“I’m sure a defense would be that this was politically motivated, the person had a personal issue and an ax to grind,” Bly said.

Racicot told Politico she didn’t go public earlier in part because she believes in Platner’s platform.

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said.

With all the years gone by, there might also be a lack of physical evidence for prosecutors to present in court, and questions from the defense not just about an accuser’s motive, but her memory.

“The longer in time someone waits to bring allegations, especially when they’re already adults when they occurred, tends to weigh against, I think, the credibility potentially of the alleged victim,” Bly said.

Still, corroboration could persuade prosecutors they have a strong enough case, Bly said. They may be able to point to accounts from people Racicot spoke with after the alleged crime occurred.

CNN spoke with two people who said that Racicot previously disclosed that Platner sexually assaulted her. She spoke with a then-boyfriend in 2023 and a close friend in late August of 2025, around the time Platner launched his campaign. The former boyfriend said Racicot disclosed Platner’s identity to him after Platner launched his campaign. The friend said Racicot initially referred to her assailant as an “oysterman,” but later shared that it was Platner.

According to Platner’s campaign website, he started working on his friend’s small oyster farm in 2018 and eventually took over the oyster farm.

Troy Jackson, a former state senator, officially launched his bid to take over the Democratic nomination in the Maine Senate race, less than an hour after Platner announced he was suspending his campaign.

“There is a powerful movement of working class people in the state of Maine, and millions more across America who are ready to send a progressive fighter to the Senate,” Jackson wrote last night on X.

“I’ve been fighting for that movement my whole life — and I’m sure as hell not backing down now, when this fight is needed most,” he continued. “I’m in. And we’re going to defeat Susan Collins.”

Jackson, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for governor, filed paperwork yesterday to begin the process of replacing Platner. The state Democratic Party voted today to hold a nominating convention later.

While Jackson is a former ally of Platner, he said this afternoon that he did not want an endorsement from him.

“When it came down to a credible allegation of somebody that was sexually assaulted, that was the end. That was the bright-red line,” Jackson said on NBC News’ Meet the Press NOW.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — Graham Platner said Wednesday that he plans to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race in Maine after facing an allegation of sexual assault, shuttering an insurgent campaign that had withstood months of controversy only to implode and imperil Democrats’ attempt to regain power in Washington.

Platner’s exit will most likely force a reckoning within the party, which has been divided between its moderate and progressive factions, when it is struggling to unify during this year’s midterm elections. Maine is considered a key state for control of the narrowly divided Senate, and Democrats were desperate for a candidate capable of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins while President Donald Trump is broadly unpopular.

READ MORE: Succession fight is underway as calls mount for Graham Platner to drop out of Senate race

Platner says the process to replace him needs to be “open, transparent and democratic” and to reflect the will and values of people who supported him. He also lashed out at Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C.

“People in D.C. need to stay in D.C.,” Platner said. “Decisions should not be made by people in places of political power.”

Platner stressed that his decision was not an admission of guilt.

Although Platner had never before held elected office, progressive leaders promoted him over Gov. Janet Mills, who was favored by the Democratic establishment. Mills dropped out of the race in late April as Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer, consolidated support from primary voters who were eager for a more combative candidate and were willing to overlook his checkered past, which included a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol and online postings dismissive of sexual assault.

Shortly before Platner clinched the Democratic nomination in the June 9 primary, there were reports that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with other women while married and that he had become physical with a previous girlfriend during an argument.

But Platner’s support didn’t crater until Monday, when Politico reported that a woman said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop.

Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner but cut off contact with him after that night in 2021 and told him the encounter wasn’t consensual. In a CNN interview, she said she had been raped “by definition.”

After the story was published, Platner in a video released on social media denied the allegation as “categorically false” but said he would be “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” for his campaign. High-level backers pulled their support, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said the next day that he spoke with Platner and that “in light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”

State law includes a provision for Democrats to replace Platner before the general election. The state Democratic Party held an emergency meeting Wednesday, where more than 100 state committee members signed off on holding a nominating convention, in the event of Platner’s withdrawal.

According to the statute, party officials may select a new nominee if a candidate who won the primary withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.

Democrats must net four Senate seats to gain control of the 100-member chamber, and party leaders viewed Maine as a critical piece of the puzzle, along with Alaska, Ohio and North Carolina.

Nazi tattoo, Reddit posts and more had already been challenges for Platner

Platner has faced difficult questions almost from the moment he started his campaign last year. News outlets uncovered years-old comments on Reddit that appeared to endorse political violence, dismiss rape in the military, criticize rural Americans and use anti-gay slurs.

There was another controversy over the skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, on his chest. He said he was unaware of the history and chose the tattoo while drunk and on leave with fellow Marines in Croatia. He covered the tattoo after becoming a candidate, and he said in an Oct. 21 interview with the Pod Save America political podcast that he was “not a secret Nazi.”

“Skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” Platner added.

However, a former girlfriend told The New York Times that Platner joked about the tattoo being a Nazi symbol and called it “my Totenkopf.”

The revelations about the tattoo and the online comments stirred concern among Democrats that Platner had been poorly vetted as a political candidate and demonstrated questionable judgment. Some party leaders despaired over Platner’s chances to win even before allegations about previous relationships began to surface.

Platner drew progressive buzz and support

Before Politico’s story was published, Platner canceled some town halls planned around the state. Such events were a calling card for his campaign, which prided itself on a willingness to go anywhere to rally voters. Volunteers hosted happy hours and trivia nights that helped generate enthusiasm for a generational shift from Collins, 73, to Platner, 41.

At a time when Democrats have grown dissatisfied with the party establishment, Platner seemed like an appealing alternative. His deep voice could command a room, and voters were drawn to his gruff populism and focus on economic inequality.

They were also willing to look past controversies as Platner portrayed himself as a regular person who had made mistakes and was striving to better himself and his community. Sometimes he talked about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he focused on the power of redemption.

Before the sexual assault allegation became public, some voters said they also wouldn’t want to be judged on their worst moments, such as drunken behavior or crude comments.

Platner was backed by progressives including Rep. Ro Khanna of California, but that support quickly eroded after Racicot’s allegations.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said Monday. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”