Search Results for: tina peters

Tina Peters on the red carpet at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports, another tough day for indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters as a second deputy cops a plea agreement to testify against Peters in exchange for sentencing leniency:

Sandra Brown, who was fired by county officials in December 2021 over her involvement in alleged tampering with election equipment, faced two felony charges of attempting to influence a public servant and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation…

The plea deal called for reducing the second charge to a misdemeanor count of official misconduct, and asking Mesa County District Judge Matthew Barrett for a minimal sentence, one that still could include jail time.

In her allocution, Brown said she was acting under orders from Peters, knew something was amiss but didn’t speak up.

“My job was to protect the integrity of the elections, and there were steps that I could have taken that would have done that in a better job,” she told Barrett. “There were things going on that I should have questioned and didn’t.”

Along with Peters’ deputy clerk Belinda Knisley, Sandra Brown has in-depth knowledge of what they’re both now laying at Clerk Peters’ feet–a criminal conspiracy to make and distribute unauthorized copies of sensitive election system software, by stealing the identity of a local resident to allow an election conspiracy theorist access to the equipment. These crimes were committed with the goal of uncovering evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, which of course did not exist.

With Peters’ two top deputies now lining up to testify against her in a case that could sentence Peters to prison for the rest of her natural life, the time has come for Peters to end the charade, cooperate with investigators, and even shed some light on who put her up to this career-ending mistake in the first place. Peters did all of this in the service of Trump, perhaps sincere in the belief that once Trump was “rightfully” restored to the presidency she would be pardoned. The crimes Peters stands accused of are disqualifying from public office, but in the end Peters is also a bit player in a much larger folly.

What Peters needs to do now is follow the example of January 6th insurrectionists who have repudiated Trump and acknowledged they were misled about the 2020 elections. This is not shaping up to be a close case at trial, and the possible 35-year jail sentence the 67-year-old Peters faces should motivate Peters to seek a deal of her own. The seriousness of Peters’ alleged misconduct may indeed warrant that stiff sentence. But we have to believe sparing taxpayers the expense of a trial, not to mention some remorse, would help Peters avoid the worst possible consequences.

If there’s anyone out there that Peters still listens to, the message is simple: Trump isn’t worth this.

Defeated GOP Secretary of State candidate Tina Peters (R).

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports:

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters paid the $255,912 needed to recount all votes in the June GOP primary for Colorado Secretary of State, a vote that had her coming in second place against the declared winner, Pamela Anderson.

As a result, elections officials in all 64 counties have until Aug. 4 to conduct their recounts, something that is expected to cause them to work the weekend to do so…

We can hardly imagine a more ingratiating burden for embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to inflict on her fellow county clerks than forcing them to spend this weekend at the office recounting an election that was in no way close instead of home with their families. But the law is the law, and if a candidate ponies up the prohibitively high cost of a recount within the specified period, which Peters did with help from Steve Bannon’s “War Room Posse,” it’s got to happen. Peters’ up-to-now partner in questioning the results of the June 28th primary, state Rep. Ron Hanks, appears to have been left high and dry.

Which doesn’t matter much now, because the recount is being set up to be declared a failure before it even begins. Peters knows (or should know) that she won’t be getting the hand recount she asked for:

The recount will be done with the same equipment used to count the June primary. Peters had asked for a hand count of all ballots, but state law and election rules dictate that existing machines be used in any recount. Those rules were put in place when Scott Gessler, a Republican who now is one of Peters’ attorneys, was secretary of state. [Pols emphasis]

When the results of this recount come back next week re-affirming Peters’ defeat, it is 100% certain that Peters will not accept that result either. If Peters never intends to accept the result of anything besides a hand recount, and knows that’s not the kind of recount she just plopped $250,000 down to have performed, it calls into question at a pretty basic level why she paid all that money, and why Bannon’s donors gave it to her.

And then you realize. There is no why. The whole purpose is to keep the uncertainty alive for just a little bit longer, during which Peters can continue to represent herself as a martyr instead of reckoning with the felony charges waiting for her in court. Which makes this, among other things, one of the most expensive denial parties in Colorado political history. Other than putting that $250,000 in a pile and literally lighting it on fire (above), it’s hard to imagine a more frivolous way to waste so much money.

With that, we’ll turn it over to readers: what would you spend Tina Peters’ $250,000 on? We’ll accept any submissions, better or worse, selfish to altruistic. It’s all the same to us since we, like Peters’ hapless donors wish they had said, don’t have any money to give you.

UPDATE #2: Denver7’s Blair Miller reports:

On Thursday afternoon just before 1 p.m., Steinberg filed a motion to quash the arrest warrant and a request for a hearing with the court, primarily arguing that he had not seen the judge’s July 11 order by the time she had left and that he did not properly provide the court with notice of her travel to Las Vegas.

In the motion, Steinberg wrote that Peters email him and her other lawyers on July 7 saying she would be going to the conference on July 12, but Steinberg did not notice she had those plans.

Because of that, he argued, his office did not prepare or file a proper notice with the court, which Steinberg said Peters was unaware of.

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UPDATE: It looks like Tina Peters’ lawyers are maneuvering to take the rap for her bond violation:

NEW: Peters’ defense files motion to quash her arrest warrant. Says Peters notified her attorneys of travel plans to NV, but her lawyer missed it and didn’t notify the court.

“Ms. Peters has not knowingly violated bond conditions, and the warrant should be quashed.” #copolitics

— Alex Rose (@AlexRoseNews) July 14, 2022

If this ploy does work, it’ll only work once. But it may keep Peters out of the klink for the present news cycle.

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Tina Peters on the red carpet at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is facing felony charges over a breach of election system security in her office, enjoyed a measure of freedom despite strict bond conditions to travel around the country as a candidate for Secretary of State–leniency that Peters exploited to the hilt by spending campaign funds on a trip to Palm Beach for the premiere of Dinesh D’Souza’s election conspiracy flick 2,000 Mules.

But now that Peters isn’t a candidate for higher office anymore, the justification for letting her travel the country has evaporated. But that apparently hasn’t stopped Peters from traveling. She just…stopped caring about permission:

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was told by a Colorado court she couldn’t leave the state without court approval, but she went anyway.

As a result, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein filed a motion with District Judge Matthew Barrett’s court late Wednesday asking that she be placed under arrest, a motion that Barrett approved at 8:16 this morning.

The clerk, who faces 10 felony and misdemeanor charges for tampering with election equipment, identity theft and misconduct in office, had traveled to Las Vegas to attend and speak at an event this week hosted by the Constitutional Sheriff & Peace Officers Association.

The arrest warrant for Clerk Peters means she’ll either be picked up in Nevada if she’s still there and extradited to Colorado in custody, or arrested upon her return to Colorado. The extradition process can take a few days or even longer depending, and is unpleasant enough on its own that Peters would probably rather turn herself in to Mesa County authorities. Either way, this could be the last straw for the court with respect to Peters’ endless petty defiance, antics that have already earned Peters a pending contempt citation. Most defendants behaving this way would already have had their bond revoked, and remanded to custody through their trial. That’s what’s supposed to happen when a defendant refuses to abide by the terms of their release on bond.

What will Tucker Carlson report about this latest news? The fictional universe Carlson created for his millions of viewers around Peters’ case is about all she has left.

And it will be cold comfort in Mesa County Jail.