Colorado Republican who pushed 2020 conspiracy theories is charged with election equipment tampering

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has been charged with attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, identity theft, and other counts

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has been charged with seven felonies (McKenzie Lange /The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via A)

A Colorado official who promoted Donald Trump’s election conspiracy theories has been charged with tampering with election equipment herself.

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, one of the state’s top election administrators, has been indicted by a grand jury on 10 criminal counts, including seven felonies. The Mesa County District Attorney’s Office announced the charges on Wednesday.

“Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failing to comply with the secretary of state,” the DA’s office said in a statement.

Ms Peters’ deputy, Belinda Knisley, was also indicted on four of those charges.

In May 2021, the indictment says, Ms Peters snuck into a warehouse where voting machines were stored and copied some of their hard drives. In August, some of the information from those machines, including their passwords, appeared on a conservative website.

Not long after the passwords were published, Ms Peters spoke at an event hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an outspoken proponent of Mr Trump’s election conspiracy theories.

“Something didn’t seem right in our county from years ago to the 2020 election,” Ms Peters told the audience. “And they wanted answers. And I said, ‘You know what? If there’s a there there, we’ll find it.’”

In reality, Joe Biden won the 2020 election by substantial margins in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. In dozens of court cases, Mr Trump’s lawyers failed to prove that the election was swayed by voter or election fraud, or even that any significant amount of fraud took place.

The Independent has reached out to Ms Peters for comment. She has not been convicted of any wrongdoing, and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

A lawyer for Ms Knisley said further evidence would clear her name.

“We certainly thank the grand jurors for their work. As you know, a grand jury does not receive all the evidence in the case,” Ms Knisley’s attorney, R Scott Reisch, told The Washington Post. “Only the evidence the district attorney believes favors their case is presented. We look forward [to] all the evidence being considered by a jury.”

Ms Peters, a Republican, is currently running to become Colorado’s secretary of state, the state’s top election official. On Wednesday, local GOP officials urged her to drop out.

“It is our belief, as leaders of the Colorado Republican Party, that any Republican candidate who is indicted with felonies by a grand jury and who will be charged by a Republican District Attorney should suspend their campaign while they undergo the legal challenges associated with those indictments,” the Colorado Republican Party said in a statement. “The Republican Party is the Party of law and order and we need every Republican voter focused on getting Republicans and constitutional conservatives elected across Colorado in 2022.”