Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters indicted for election tampering : NPR
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Updated March 9, 202211:12 PM ET Originally published March 9, 202212:39 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered
Bente Birkeland
Megan Verlee
A grand jury has indicted a Colorado county clerk, Tina Peters, and her deputy on a laundry list of charges related to an election security breach in her office last summer that was influenced by former President Donald Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election.
The charges against Peters come as election workers around the U.S. face death threats amid a national disinformation campaign that has falsely alleged wide-scale election tampering in 2020. Peters' case is particularly worrisome to many who run elections as a sign that insiders might act upon those conspiracy theories, further undermining confidence in the voting process.
Peters, who's the county clerk and recorder in Mesa County, in western Colorado, faces 10 counts, including seven felony charges and three misdemeanors. The felony charges include attempting to influence a public servant, identity theft, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. The misdemeanors include first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.
Her deputy, Belinda Knisley, has been indicted on six counts, including attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.
The pair is accused of helping an unauthorized person make copies of sensitive voting-machine hard drives and attend an annual software update. Information from the machines and secure passwords were later shared with election conspiracy theorists online. Shortly after the data was leaked, Peters appeared at an event put on by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the leading promoters of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged.
"Something didn't seem right in our county from years ago to the 2020 election. And they wanted answers. And I said, 'You know what? If there's a there there, we'll find it.' And I've made that pledge to the citizens of Mesa County and all over Colorado," said Peters during the 2021 event.
The maker of the equipment, Dominion Voting Systems, has been the focus of false conspiracy theories claiming it helped steal the 2020 election for President Biden. Dominion is suing a number of the most prominent proponents of those claims for defamation.
In a joint statement announcing the indictment, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, "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."
The indictment argues that Peters and Knisley together lied to other Mesa County staff, as well as workers in the secretary of state's office. It also alleges that the two committed identity theft against a local man, Gerald "Jerry" Wood, in order to give someone — the indictment doesn't say who — access to the hard drives and the software update in his name.
It states that the women "devised and executed a deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment, and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people."
Peters said the indictment was another in a series of politically motivated accusations by Rubenstein, who she called a "self-identified never-Trumper," and Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who she said had "ties to George Soros funding."
"Using a grand jury to formalize politically-motivated accusations against candidates is tactic long employed by the Democrat Party," Peters said in a statement. "Using legal muscle to indict political opponents during an election isn't new strategy, but it's easier to execute when you have a district attorney who despises President Trump and any constitutional conservative like myself who continues to demand all election evidence be made available to the public."
Peters has long maintained that she has every right to look into potential election fraud and was simply responding to the concerns of her constituents.
"I have attempted to investigate the results of the elections, a duty that I have to my constituents," she told Colorado Public Radio. "They were coming to me."
Peters recently announced she is running for secretary of state against Griswold, who has been a driving force in the investigation against her. She said the indictment is an attempt "influence voters enough with indictments and arrests and media drama during the primaries, to elect a weaker general election opponent" against Griswold.
Griswold first said her office would look into a possible security breach last August.
"Every eligible Coloradan - Republican, Democrat, and Unaffiliated alike - has the right to make their voice heard in safe, accessible, and secure elections," said Griswold in a statement after the indictment was announced.
"To do that, we need election administrators who are committed to following the law and election rules. Officials tasked with carrying out elections do so in public trust and must be held accountable when they abuse their power or position."
Republican Party leaders in Colorado urged Peters to suspend her campaign.
"It is our belief, as leaders of the Colorado Republican Party, that any Republican candidate who is indicted with felonies by a grand jury and who will be charged by a Republican District Attorney should suspend their campaign while they undergo the legal challenges associated with those indictments," said a joint statement from the party's top leaders.
A judge banned Peters from overseeing Mesa County's 2021 election, and the county had to turn to outside help to manage the office's staff. A current lawsuit requests that Peters be removed from playing any role in managing the 2022 vote.
The county was also required to replace the Dominion Voting machines after the state decertified them last fall, just weeks before the election.
The bipartisan Colorado County Clerks Association called the "breach of trust" devastating and said from the beginning that it was unified in its desire to see the situation in Mesa County investigated fully and that if there was wrongdoing, the association wanted it exposed and prosecuted.
"From the initial public reports of Clerk Peters' actions, it was clear she violated her oath of office and likely broke the law. Since that time, she has repeated in sworn court filings that she carried out acts that violated her oath. Now, a grand jury of her peers seated by her own district attorney has determined she allegedly committed several crimes, including official misconduct."
The investigation has divided Republican elected officials in the deeply conservative part of Colorado who have spoken out against her actions.
Mesa County Commissioner Scott McInnis, a Republican, has described the months-long investigation into Peters as a cascading series of mini-crises with so many legal questions, public hearings and fights with Peter and her supporters.
He said if Peters really believed her county's voting machines were hacked, she should have called the proper authorities to look into it.
"There's a right way to do it, and there's a wrong way she chose intentionally, because I think she wanted the attention. And she wanted to show the country that she had discovered why Trump lost the election. This is my opinion."
Colorado lawmakers will be considering legislation this session to try to prevent similar types of possible security breaches in the future.
Correction March 9, 2022Due to inaccurate information provided by officials, an earlier version of this story said Tina Peters has been indicted on 13 counts. It's 10 counts.
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It's been a year, but now she's been indicted on 10 counts. There seem to be a lot of people getting themselves in trouble around Trump's "Big Lie".
Trump finally got his proof of fraud...by his own party.
And she blames the Democrats....
The irony is stunning. Seems all the election fraud is instigated by the R's.
I thought there was none?
Here is the problem, no matter who wins the 2024 Presidential election, and it's likely to be a Republican, there will be claims of election fraud. A very bad tonic has been created via the dangerous element of massive mail-in-voting and the fact that each election represents major swings of the pendulum from one extreme to the other.
what a crock of autocratic bullshit. Colorado's mail in vote elections are in the top 3 of secure elections nation wide. if some backwards fucktards want to vote in person in CO, they can.
Are you sure it isn't the fucktards that need a ballot brought to them in order for them to actually vote?
fucktards are those that think 200+ million registered US voters should all vote within a 12 hour time span on a single day, especially in red states where the number of polling places have been reduced.
That's very true...it works well and is quite secure. A few years ago I signed the ballot envelope wrong and got a letter from the election commission saying I had to correct it before my vote would be counted.
Trouble is, many states mail in systems were not well thought out
Oh is that it?
So it's not that major enthusiasm problem that plagues the democratic party in which many of their voters simply don't get off their asses to go out and vote, or don't even know what the candidates stand for or the issues are. They only know they are fucking democrats for some reason. As Marc Elias proved, if only you can put a ballot under their noses and put a ballot box close to them, they'll cast a vote.
Looking back at the 2020 numbers, the deciding factor, despite getting registered democrats to vote, was the defection of Republicans and independents from Trump. Polls now indicate that those voters regret their votes. So it really won't matter in 2024, but as I say there will be claims of fraud!
How do you get your mail in ballot Vic?
I thought there was none ?
I guess you were wrong...
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is asking for his share of a reward after he offered up a case of voter fraud to Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick via Twitter. Patrick had announced that he is giving out $1 million in rewards for information that leads to voter fraud arrests and convictions.
aka the typical republican voter flipping that R lever in the booth ...
the most sacred right of every eligible american citizen is to vote. that right should also be the easiest right to exercise. the orange menace said it best, and I'll paraphrase, when it's easy to vote republicans lose. any alleged voter fraud committed by democrats in the last election is a tiny fraction of the voter fraud actually committed by republicans, just like what this seed is about.
Vic seems kind of tongue tied about this. lol
He's left the building.
Dan Patrick actually paid 1 Democratic Poll worker who caught one of those R's
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pays $25,000 reward to Democratic poll watcher - The Washington Post
You are either a very amusing fellow in person
or very paranoid.
Shingles doesn't care...
The 'bad tonic' was created by Trump's Big Lie with a background of continual allegations of 'rigged'. Trump has complained that every election he is part of was rigged. His claims (no matter how unsupported) influence the public — far too many gullible / sycophants believe his lies.
Someone need to show convincing evidence that the mail-in voting produced a level of fraud that could affect the outcome of the election. Or even a level that is statistically troublesome compared to voting irregularities of past elections. Until that is done, this ongoing fraud conspiracy crap is nothing more than partisan bullshit.
trump complained that the 2016 election was going to be rigged...before he won.
Indeed. He complains about a rigged election whenever he runs and only stops if he wins. One must wonder how this fact escapes his die-hard supporters who support his Big Lie.
The problem is [removed] bitching about people like me and apparently knowing nothing about the reasons for mail-in-ballots. You do remember how El Presidente Naranja said absentee ballots (which are mail in ballots) were good don't you?
At least he coughed up something. Pretty weak though.
Do mail-in ballots benefit Democrats or Republicans? The answer is neither, according to available data.
Apparently, there are as many republican fucktards as democrat fucktards. So, who is the fucktard. Vic?
You bitch about a (supposed) problem that would be a problem in both parties. Yet you apparently only think it is an issue if one of the parties does it.
TX made it pointless to request the mail in ballot guaranteed people over 65
by making it illegal to supply the mail in ballot application on line or mailed by
the appropriate county voting authority, as was done in the past.
Now you have to request a mail in ballot in person,
which defeats the purpose, doesn't it Steve?
Maybe someday common sense will prevail...
Horseshit ..... a person with a modicum of motivation to do their civic duty to vote doesn’t need such measures to do so. Me and mine are living proof of that.
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'You and yours' are non existent on the internet,
you are just alphabet characters on a page, [Deleted]
usually spewing hate, garage and partisan "horse shit"
against fellow veterans and American citizens...
Putin congratulates you/s
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Yawn ... more meaningless hyperbolic nonsense from our fundamentalist friends on the left. Propaganda ministers in places like China and Afghanistan congratulate you on a job well done.
Funniest part is when fruitloops on the left question a cold warriors patriotism. I laugh my ass off every time that happens.
Funny as hell!
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Sheetz gift cards...gas for your car and gas for your belly!
Said by one who mails in their vote
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I was referring to someone who mailed in their vote but said everyone else who did was lazy.
Weird. You had to remind yourself who you were talking about?
I was responding to a post regarding Vic to devangelical - or thought I was - then up pops one of my fans.
I have thought for years that there is no such thing, although everyone talks about it. Most people use it to mean "the way I think and do things".
Me and mine are proof of the opposite.
Then get off your butt and do your civic duty. Voting has always been easy in my lifetime in this country. For anyone motivated to do so.
Never missed a vote I wanted to make. Whether I was overseas or otherwise.
Why did you have a problem?
Was unaware that I had/have a problem. I was merely making the point that not everyone who wants to vote can actually physically get to the voting booth.
What are you all pissed off about?
It appears to be a natural state of mind for some people.
No reason, common sense or logic required.
It's either sports or politics usually.
in my opinion...
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Nah but ignorant, disingenuous comments made to push certain agendas here are SOP for many left leaning commenters here.
Know what I mean?
I don't. maybe some super patriot will explain it to me.
Like one who spent 4 years in the Marines....but pretends he made a career out of it?
like anybody that lets comrade trumpski take a pass on the US constitution they swore an oath to defend.
I assume that snide passive aggressive special was for me. Feel free to show me where I ever ever remotely alluded to that.
You won’t because you can’t. Full stop .....
All you got is hate for those who don’t goose-step to your preferred narrative. Sophomoric to the Nth degree .... SOSDD ....
No, I think it applies to many people, especially the self anointed experts, here.
Do yourself a favor, don't assume anything.
Oh the irony.
If it is all you ever did then it was your career.
Do yourself a favor and let people defend themselves.
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Self anointed experts here, falsely anointing experts, is completely meaningless. [Deleted]
It's a shame you cannot see the irony in your statements.
Carry on...
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Let's hope she takes a plea deal or is convicted by a jury
definitely needs to be convicted by a Republican jury of her peers.
She's literally just lost her job, home and future...
3 hots and a cot is the easy way out.
I remember that. I wondered why she was never charged with anything.
Copying the hard drives...
those are state charges, she's still under investigation by the FBI.
It looks like Ms. Peters will be a smidge too busy to run for Secretary of State any time soon.
Yet she is unwilling to withdraw from the election.
teabags and thumpers are the only republicans left in colorado, thankfully...
Lock her up.
she needs her unamerican dumb ass kicked thru the ER entrance door a few times first...
Her arrest! The Republican party here in Colorado has become a pathetic joke, unlikely to recover
video unavailable, but that's her arrest for recording court proceedings on her ipad after being instructed by the judge to not do it. she also tried to kick the arresting officers during her arrest. I hope her legal bills bankrupt her.
Video is available from 9News Denver.
I've seen it. I bet she didn't put up any fight at all while in mike lindells safe house in texas.
Click on the "Watch on You Tube"
oops...
I guess that makes the link a redirect away from NT to youtube. I know of a missing mega-maga-thumper that gets comments like those deleted. ha ha ha ha ha
Sad film.
After resisting, and kicking at the arresting officers she tries to claim injury to her hand from the handcuffs and denies that her Ipad is hers.
Wow.
Oops.
So she's the crazy bitch that Mike Lindell was aiding and abetting!
Just another far-right wing fascist doesn't seem to encompass the reality.
I know, very sad.
Wonder why wasn't she shot multiple times? At least tasered? Why wasn't she thrown to the ground, kneed and the like?
She was resisting arrest after all.
Wrong skin color.
What is the right skin color to you?
Oh the irony, seems that she found the ''there''..