Tina Peters (previously), a county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, was found guilty Monday on seven charges related to her attempts to hack into Colorado's election system after the 2020 election. She claims she was trying to prove a conspiracy to deprive Donald Trump of victory, so jurors didn't have to think long or hard about it: it took them only four hours to crank through her rap sheet.
Peters, 68, was convicted on three counts of attempting to influence a public official, with a count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, a count of official misconduct, a count of violation of duty, and one county of failure to comply with an order of the Secretary of State. She will be sentenced on October 3 and faces years in prison on the most serious charges.
The allegations turned Peters into an icon among election conspiracy theorists, embraced by national figures including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who told The Colorado Sun in April 2022 that he contributed up to $800,000 of his personal wealth toward her legal defense.
Jurors were forced to choose between clashing portraits of Peters, with prosecutors portraying her as a conniving, law-breaking, publicity-seeking conspiracy monger who jeopardized Colorado's voting system. To the defense, she was a dedicated public servant who was only trying to protect sensitive election information for her constituents — until she was steamrolled by a vindictive big government juggernaut.
Is it a surprise MAGA types end up convicted of the crimes they accuse others of? It sounds like a stunt defense, too: claim the election conspiracy was real, admit the criminal activity, pose it as righteous response to election fraud, and … what, exactly? Jury nullification, pardons, judicial leniency? The delicious taste of bitter self-pity, in prison?
Prosecutors reminded the jurors that Peters had surveillance cameras turned off in the secure tabulation room before she brought in a former pro surfer named Conan Hayes to copy information from the hard drives on that system. She used an encrypted messaging system with her small band of co-conspirators. She had some of those conspirators start using burner phones so their conversations could not be monitored by law enforcement. She bragged about having a "hidey hole" in her house where she placed a phone that was initially overlooked by law officers who searched her house.
It'll be the leniency, won't it?
Previously:
• Former county clerk Kim Davis hit with $360K bill for denying gay marriage licenses
• Wisco county clerk whose homemade voting software found 14K votes for Tea Party judge is an old hand at illegal campaigning
• MAGA-loving County Clerk in Colorado has no fun being arrested at a bagel shop
Correction: Colorado, not Arizona.
