A judge has blasted a Colorado law clerk for her crimes and lies before condemning her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data breach scheme that stemmed from rampant false claims of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential race.
District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after previously speaking to her for continuing to make discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.
‘I’m convinced you would do it all again if you could. You are as challenging as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her as she delivered the sentence. ‘You’re not a hero. You have abused your position and you are a charlatan.’
Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access Mesa County’s election system and for being misleading about that person’s identity.
The man was associated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from former President Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself, whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol because of them and who still points out in his third attempt to become president.
In a statement on Friday, Lindell called Peters’ conviction “one of the greatest injustices this country has ever seen,” and called Peters a “hero” who will be “justified.”
During the trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, sought fame and became “fixated” on voting issues after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.
Peters, once a hero among election deniers, has not apologized for what happened. She was arrested in 2022.
Before she was sentenced, Peters insisted that everything she did to try to root out fraud was for the greater good.
“I never did anything malicious to break the law. I just wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court.
However, when Peters continued with claims that no legal authority has confirmed about “wireless devices” and fraud software in voting machines, she angered the judge. The recounts of the ballots showed no discrepancies, he emphasized.
“I’ve told you enough about this,” Judge Barrett said. “The votes are the votes.”
The judge later noted that Peters has made public appearances in broadcasts for sympathetic audiences for her own benefit.
“They’re just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day you cared about the planes, the podcasts and the people fawning over you,” Barrett said.
Peters had a right to be defiant, he noted, but it was “certainly not helpful to her fate today.”
The Peters-led breach raised concerns that rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to attack voting processes from within.
It is impossible to overstate the damage Peters has caused to other election workers in Colorado and elsewhere, Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told the court.
“In a real and specific way, her actions have directly led to death threats and general threats to the lives and families of the people who work in our elections,” Crane said. “She has willingly helped people in our country who believe that violence is a way to make a point. She has knowingly lit a fire in others who choose threats as a means to get their way.”
He, his wife and his children were among those threatened, Crane said.
In an interview with CBS News Colorado, Crane said he felt “Tina got justice.” However, he emphasized that “the impact is not over yet, and it will continue for years to come.”
Despite that, county clerks across the state have been working to rebuild voter confidence threats to them and high turnoverwhile the elections are only a few weeks away.
Courthouse staff in Grand Junction also received multiple threats that were vetted by law enforcement while additional security was provided Friday, said Wendy Likes, spokesperson for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
In Mesa County, Peters’ actions cost the local government $1.4 million in legal fees and lost employee time, County Commissioner Cody Davis estimated during the sentencing hearing.
Peters’ fame has also brought “unprecedented costs” to the area, Davis told the court.
“We are very proud of this community, but our reputation has taken a hit,” Davis said. “Her behavior has turned this province into a national laughing stock.”
Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public official, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, official misconduct in the first degree, dereliction of duty and failure to comply with the Secretary of State.
She was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one count of criminal impersonation. Yet she continued to take to social media to blast Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems, accusing her county’s election system and others of stealing votes.
Colorado will not allow anyone to threaten the election, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement in response to Peters’ conviction.
“Colorado elections are the gold standard for the country. I am proud of the way we responded to the nation’s first insider election violation and look forward to another safe and successful election in November,” Griswold said.
Attorney General Phil Weiser called the verdict “fair and just” in a statement.
In this week’s episode of Left, right, centerDemocratic analyst Mike Dino told CBS News Colorado political specialist Shaun Boyd that he was surprised by the verdict handed down against Peters.
“But I was also surprised by the community that came forward and said they were affected by it. Former Congressman Scott McInnis, who serves on the Mesa County Commission, said how it affected people, affected their lives and the money they had to spend, and that was quite moving and the judge calls her a ‘charlatan,’” Dino said. “I think people are going to be afraid of it and I think even though this wasn’t necessarily an election denial lawsuit because she tampered with election equipment, people like the former president should be afraid that someone could come. pretty hard on them.”
Republican analyst Dick Wadhams, in that same segment, praised the verdict and the judge’s statements, saying it “sent a message to election officials across the country that this will not be tolerated.”
However, Wadhams warned that not only will Peters’ verdict and conviction not discourage Peters’ supporters and election deniers, it will only embolden them.
“They believe it and this won’t deter them. In fact, she will become a martyr to these people. And so I think it will have an effect on people doing what they did again, but it will probably encourage the stolen election conspiracies.”