In Colorado, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whose ordinary responsibilities include overseeing local elections, has been indicted on a slew of charges including felony offenses over her role in a breach of the security protocols surrounding local elections systems in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. (These people really act like the law simply doesn’t apply to them, don’t they?) Peters helped facilitate the unauthorized acquisition of data from those local elections systems, and that data was used in support of false claims about the integrity of the 2020 elections. For those elections, the county used equipment from Dominion Voting Systems — a tech company that has repeatedly figured in pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the process.
On May 23 of last year, as a Colorado news outlet explained it, “Peters used her badge to enter the secure area with someone, later identified as Gerald Wood. While in the room he imaged the hard drives of vote-counting equipment, essentially making a copy of their software and data.” In the following days, a session to update the software on the Dominion machines was held, and although only staffers associated with the county elections office, certain state authorities, and Dominion were permitted to be there, Peters once again brought along Wood, who was characterized as an administrative assistant even though he’s apparently never been on county payroll for anything. As that Colorado outlet adds, “[Someone] took pictures and video of the [update session], including passwords for the election machines displayed on a laptop belonging to the state employee.” After that juncture, Peters and Wood made more copies of the machine’s hard drives.
A Mesa County grand jury has returned an indictment on a total of 13 counts against Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and her Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley in its election system breach investigation. #copolitics
— Saja Hindi (@BySajaHindi) March 9, 2022
Now, after an intensive look at the situation by authorities in Colorado, Peters has been charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identify theft, and first-degree official misconduct. Each and every one of those offenses except for first-degree official misconduct are felonies. (She’s also facing other charges.) Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and Colorado state Attorney General Phil Weiser commented as follows regarding these latest developments:
‘Yesterday, the Mesa County grand jury returned an indictment after the presentation of evidence in an ongoing investigation into the alleged election system breach in Mesa County. The grand jury, randomly selected from the same pool of citizens that elected Clerk Tina Peters and chosen months before any of these alleged offenses occurred, concluded there is probable cause that Clerk Peters and Deputy Clerk Knisley committed crimes… This investigation is ongoing, and other defendants may be charged as we learn more information. We remind everyone that these are allegations at this point and that they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.’
Breaking: A Grand jury has indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and her deputy on 13 counts related to election tampering and misconduct. #copolitics #cogov #Elections
— Bente Birkeland (@BenteBirkeland) March 9, 2022
Peters is an ally of MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, one of the perhaps loudest promoters of false claims regarding the integrity of the last election. She showed up at a conference that he put on last year to showcase his false election fraud claims. Peters has also announced a candidacy for Colorado Secretary of State, although she could reasonably be expected to not exactly do very well in a state that Joe Biden won in the 2020 general election by more than 13 percent. Check out a press release on this developing matter below:
More on the specific charges in the grand jury indictment here. Charges include multiple felonies. Release from Mesa County DA's office in Grand Junction: pic.twitter.com/ObSXTfmEEH
— Jeremy Jojola (@jeremyjojola) March 9, 2022
