A Mesa County jury discovered Tina Peters responsible Monday on seven of 10 felony fees associated to a safety breach that occurred within the spring of 2021 within the elections workplace she oversaw because the Mesa County clerk and recorder.
The jury returned the decision simply hours after closing arguments.
Peters was discovered responsible on three felony counts of making an attempt to affect a public servant, one felony depend of felony impersonation, one misdemeanor depend of official misconduct, one misdemeanor depend of violation of obligation in elections, and one misdemeanor depend of failure to adjust to the secretary of state. She was acquitted on two felony counts of felony impersonation and one felony depend of identification theft.
“Tina Peters willfully compromised her personal election tools attempting to show Trump’s Large Lie,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold mentioned in an announcement after the decision was introduced within the Mesa County District Court docket of Choose Matthew Barrett. “She has been discovered responsible by a jury of her friends and can now face the implications of her actions. Right this moment’s verdict sends a transparent message: we won’t tolerate any effort to threaten the safety of our gold normal elections. I’m proud that justice for Colorado voters has been served at present.”
Griswold’s workplace opened an investigation into Peters in August 2021 after it realized that delicate Mesa County election system information had been posted on-line. In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury charged Peters for her function in a scheme to permit an unauthorized particular person to enter Mesa County’s elections division to make copies of election system software program and seize photographs of passwords and different delicate information in Might 2021, in the course of the time of an election tools software program replace, also referred to as a trusted construct.
The scheme represented an occasion wherein election deniers aligned with former President Donald Trump discovered a keen county clerk in Colorado to deceive different public servants in an try to show election tools in Mesa County was by some means corruptible.
Peters declined to remark after the decision and informed reporters she would achieve this at a later time.
In his closing statements following the eight-day trial, the prosecution’s Robert Shapiro, first assistant Colorado legal professional normal for particular prosecutions, mentioned Peters opened up her workplace and herself to exterior individuals to permit a safety breach of Mesa County’s election tools.
The case includes “layers upon layers of deceit,” with lots of people working with Peters to perform the fraud, Shapiro mentioned.
A type of individuals was Kurt Olsen, an affiliate of MyPillow CEO and outstanding Trump ally Mike Lindell, an election denier. Shapiro reminded jurors that Peters informed Olsen that she was “at his disposal” and was there to assist in their endeavors.
Others, in keeping with prosecutors, included Ohio mathematician Douglas Frank, an election conspiracy theorist on Lindell’s payroll; Conan Hayes, a former skilled surfer-turned conspiracy theorist from California; and Sherronna Bishop, a good friend of Peters who didn’t reside in or work for Mesa County but had an integral function in orchestrating a scheme to permit Hayes into the safe elections space the place the breach occurred.
Shapiro mentioned Peters duped a Dominion Voting Methods worker and secretary of state employees members when she allowed an unauthorized particular person — Hayes — to be a part of the trusted construct on Might 25 and 26, 2021, beneath the pretense that he was a Mesa County worker.
Based on prosecutors, Hayes entered the elections room on Might 23, when workplaces have been closed and cameras had been turned off, to make a duplicate of the software program of the elections system onerous drive. On Might 25, he returned to the room for the trusted construct attended by Peters, plus representatives from the secretary of state and Dominion Voting Methods.
Surveillance cameras had beforehand been shut off on Might 17, regardless of a longtime coverage in Mesa County to depart cameras on 24/7.
Contradicting testimonies
Shapiro described how Peters employed Gerald Wooden, a Fruita resident, for the aim of utilizing his identification to acquire safety clearance for Hayes so he might enter safe election areas posing as Wooden. Wooden went via a background examine and obtained a safety entry badge solely to be requested by considered one of Peters’ employees members to offer it again just a few days later.
Throughout the trial and shutting statements, protection attorneys tried to color Wooden as a keen participant within the scheme.
Shapiro mentioned the one witness who testified that Wooden was in on the plan was Bishop, who in keeping with prosecutors helped orchestrate the breach. Bishop is taken into account by prosecutors an unindicted co-conspirator.
Bishop’s testimony contradicted Wooden’s sworn statements that he knew nothing of the plan and that he didn’t grant permission to offer his identification to a 3rd get together. Shapiro mentioned Bishop was not a reputable witness.
“No different witness supported Sherronna Bishop’s account,” Shapiro mentioned.
Hayes was an out of doors imposter who used Wooden’s identification to repeat delicate information, Shapiro mentioned.
Different proof provided by the prosecution included Peters telling employees members to buy disposable telephones with money and to make use of the encrypted texting platform Sign, in addition to a non-county electronic mail handle.
Shapiro reminded jurors how Bishop, whereas attending a “cyber safety” symposium in South Dakota in August 2021, across the time that Griswold launched her investigation into the elections safety breach, known as Peters’ then-Chief Deputy Belinda Knisley in Grand Junction asking her to go to the elections workplace and take away the election pc server. Knisley refused.
When Peters realized election system information and passwords had been posted to a web-based conspiracy website, she repeatedly informed Knisley “I’m (expletive deleted) I’m going to jail,” Shapiro mentioned.
“Does that sound like somebody who’s doing proper, doing one thing noble?” Shapiro mentioned to the jurors.
Questions round Hayes
Protection legal professional John Case started his closing assertion with an exhibit — a photograph of Peters together with her son, who died in 2017 as the results of an air present accident whereas he was serving with the U.S. Navy SEALs.
“When Tina Peters’ son died she was compelled to discover a goal in life,” and she or he ran for Mesa County clerk and recorder, Case mentioned.
Case, as did all of the protection attorneys all through the trial, persistently referred to Peters as “Clerk Peters” — although her tenure ended initially of 2023.
Shapiro objected a number of instances throughout Case’s closing statements, saying both he was misstating information or was mentioning subjects that had not been admitted as proof.
Case informed jurors that Bishop wished to hide Hayes’ identification and that one resolution to guard one particular person led the federal government to cost Peters with 10 crimes. The protection claimed that Peters believed Hayes was a confidential authorities agent.
At one level throughout his statements, Case likened the entry badge to a resort key card that you’d share with a husband, spouse or good friend.
Case mentioned Peters grew to become a goal of the federal government after the video she took in the course of the trusted construct appeared on the web. He mentioned she didn’t consent to its launch on-line and that it’s not a criminal offense to publish movies on the web.
“We nonetheless worth free speech, except you’re a goal of the federal government,” Case mentioned. “Then your speech has no worth.”
Case questioned why Hayes was not requested to testify.
“He’s key to the entire case,” he mentioned. “They didn’t have the heart to name him as a witness.”
In her rebuttal to Case’s closing arguments, Deputy Legal professional Basic Janet Drake defined why they hadn’t heard from Hayes.
“It’s Tina Peters’ trial,” she mentioned. “We’re right here as a result of she deceived a public servant to sneak an individual into the workplace.”
Drake informed jurors there’s lots of proof that Peters had felony intent in her actions, beginning with an April 23, 2021, assembly with out-of-state co-conspirators, surveillance cameras being turned off on Might 17 of that yr, using disposable telephones, and using the encrypted Sign platform and non-county emails. Drake additionally reiterated how after studying an investigation had been launched, Peters “dropped the F-bomb,” and mentioned many instances that she was “going to jail.”
The protection argued Peters acted merely to guard election data, however Drake mentioned her actions have been a “deep dive” into disclosing publicly confidential info. It was all “so she may very well be the hero, to be on a stage on the symposium and get well-known due to this breach,” Drake mentioned.
“(Tina Peters) was in command of defending election integrity and she or he didn’t do it,” Drake mentioned.
Peters was the “fox guarding the henhouse,” she mentioned.
Legal professional normal: ‘A warning’
Matt Crane, government director of the Colorado County Clerks Affiliation, mentioned in an announcement, “Clerks throughout the state are happy to see justice executed at present. We take critically our function as guardians of the perfect election course of within the nation and are grateful to see the justice system maintain those that would hurt our elections accountable.”
Colorado Legal professional Basic Phil Weiser additionally weighed in on Monday’s verdict: “I wish to thank the prosecutors from my group who labored side-by-side with Mesa County District Legal professional Dan Rubinstein to deliver justice on this case. They’ve labored for a number of years beneath troublesome circumstances — together with abhorrent threats. I’m grateful for his or her dedication to the rule of legislation and sense of obligation.”
Weiser continued, “Right this moment’s verdict is a warning to others that they are going to face severe penalties in the event that they try to illegally tamper with our voting processes or election techniques. I wish to be clear — our elections are protected and honest. In truth, Colorado’s election system is the gold normal of the nation. And make no mistake: my workplace will proceed to guard it.”
Sentencing for Peters has been set for Oct. 3.
This text first appeared within the Colorado Newsline, a sister website of the Nebraska Examiner within the States Newsroom community.
