In Colorado, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters (R) — an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump — was arrested this week for apparently recording court proceedings involving someone on staff in her office, even though it had been established that such recordings weren’t allowed. Apparently, officers also executed a warrant to seize an iPad on which she was suspected to have captured the recording. The individual at the center of the court proceedings was Peters’s deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, whose charges include burglary after she conducted what has been referred to as “inappropriate, unprofessional conduct in the workplace” while on administrative leave.
Peters self-confidently denied to the judge that she was recording the proceedings, but her arrest warrant stated that “the iPadOS camera application was open, distinguishable with the red record button,” adding that an observer “saw that the view in the viewfinder was a live view of the courtroom.” Peters — who was released on the scene after her initial arrest — was caught on camera struggling with the officers who showed up this week to apprehend her, according to a video that was obtained by the media. She yelled for the officers to “let go of me”… although that’s not exactly how getting arrested works.
Senate GOP Whip John Thune, speaking to @tedbarrettcnn on reports that Trump tore up documents, says “nobody should be exempt” from the law and adds: “He should be held to the same standards as all former presidents.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 8, 2022
Besides this debacle, Peters has also faced steep scrutiny for a security breach in her office. As previously reported on this website, Peters stands accused of bringing an unauthorized person into elections offices to copy data from machines made by Dominion Voting Systems, a firm that has repeatedly figured in pro-Trump, election-related conspiracy theories. A grand jury was recently announced to be set to consider criminal charges against Peters, and she has been barred from overseeing upcoming elections — although she’s still running for another term in office, apparently, even with these limits on her conducting of the responsibilities associated with the position. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said about the original incident that it’s “troubling for the entire state of Colorado to have someone in a trusted position, literally trusted to protect democracy, allow this type of situation to occur,” adding: “To be very clear, [Peters] allowed a security breach and by all evidence at this point assisted it.”
Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, told me that the RNC censure resolution didn’t come up in conference meeting today — likely because a lot of people were “embarrassed” by it.
“It was pretty damn embarrassing,” he said.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 8, 2022
Peters is also an ally of MyPillow founder/CEO Mike Lindell, and she appeared at an event that he put on last year to promote false claims of election fraud. After the original instance of unauthorized access to Mesa County equipment, local authorities were forced to prepare to replace the county’s voting machines, because Peters apparently directed that video surveillance be turned off at critical moments. Thus, officials were no longer able to verify the chain of custody for the items. Together with Peters’s behavior surrounding these court proceedings that she apparently captured on an unauthorized recording, these details suggest that Peters feels like she’s basically above the law — which isn’t something that should be said of someone in a position of public trust!
"He illegally destroyed items that don't actually belong to him. These records belong to the American people," Paul Butler says about reports that former President Trump illegally shredded documents by hand.https://t.co/ZJZuNjKynb
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 9, 2022
