Colorado judges found Tina Peters guilty of meddling with elections.

Prosecutors told the jury in former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters‘ trial that she had given access to secret voter records to election conspiracy theorists, much like a fox protecting the henhouse.

Situation as of Monday: “She pretty much opened the door and said, ‘Come on in,'” special prosecutor Robert Shapiro remarked in his closing remarks.

The most recent: A little over four hours after the arguments concluded, the 15 jurors reached a unanimous decision to find Peters guilty on seven of the ten counts of election tampering.

• Since four of the guilty charges are felonies, a lengthy jail sentence is possible.
• First-degree official misconduct, three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, and duty violation are among the guilty counts.
• Regarding three further charges, including identity theft, she was found not guilty.

Why this matters The trial demonstrated the extent to which former President Trump‘s supporters went in an attempt to taint the 2020 election outcome, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Quick refresher: Colorado prosecutors said that in May 2021, Peters, 68, violated state law by permitting an unauthorized individual to enter the county’s voting equipment using someone else’s security badge. The individual made copies of hard drives and took screenshots of passwords.

• Testimony later surfaced online, claiming Peters told her deputy she was going to jail.

Zoom in: The last round of arguments concluded at about 1 pm in a Grand Junction courtroom.

• The prosecution claimed that when the information was made public online, Peters plotted to conceal the fact that he had permitted illegal access to electoral records.
• In response, the defense raised unfounded conspiracy theory references and contended that Peters was only preserving electoral records as part of her job as a clerk.
• “The election records clerk Peters took an oath to protect are going to be erased,” her attorney John Case informed the jury.

Between the lines: election deniers Mike Lindell and Sherronna Bishop, who goes by the moniker “America’s Mom” and is a close ally of U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert, were among the Trump supporters who attempted to obtain the documents and mobilize around her cause.

The defense team’s attempts to draw attention to Dominion Voting Systems machine falsities were consistently denied by the judge, despite the fact that Peters’ lawyer implied—without providing any supporting documentation—that the CIA was complicit in the case against his client.

Check for reality: According to a post-election audit, paper votes cast in Colorado were accurately tallied, giving President Biden a 14-point victory there in 2020.

What comes next: On October 3, there will be a sentencing hearing. She might spend up to 22 years behind bars.

Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was convicted on seven counts.

 

After a protracted criminal trial, twelve jurors from Mesa County found Tina Peters guilty of four felonies on Monday. This is the second conviction connected to conspiracy allegations surrounding the 2020 election.

In May 2021, Peters was charged with ten crimes in connection with her assistance to a guy who was trying to access voting machines without authorization when a secure software update was being installed. Passwords and hard drive copies from the county’s voting machines were later leaked online by those attempting to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral process.

After around four and a half hours of deliberation on Monday afternoon, the jury’s verdict was announced to a crowded courtroom shortly after five o’clock in the evening.

Three counts of attempting to influence a public official and one count of conspiring to commit criminal impersonation were found to be brought against Peters. She was also found guilty of three misdemeanors: first-degree official misconduct, duty violation, and disobedience of a Secretary of State directive.

Peters was found not guilty by the jury on three charges: identity theft, criminal impersonation, and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.

How did we arrive at this location?

The inquiry into Peters’ activities started nearly precisely three years ago when pictures from a secure update that included machine passwords appeared online.

The results of the 2020 presidential election and the Grand Junction municipal election in the spring of 2021 prompted Peters to start meeting with individuals worried about election integrity, according to investigations by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office and the 21st Judicial District in Mesa County. Peters said there was a problem with the county’s Dominion Voting Systems devices since some more moderate candidates won.

 

A few of the case’s facts have never been in doubt. Peters acknowledges that in May 2021, she gave access to county voting equipment to a different man, Conan Hayes, a self-described data expert from California, using the identity of a Fruita man named Gerald Wood. Hayes used the equipment to copy its hard drive and, a few days later, attend a secure software update. Hayes is a former surfer who has connections to Lindell and his disinformation effort over the nation’s electoral process.