Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for election data fraud

CNN
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A judge convicted a Colorado county clerk of her crimes and lies before sentencing her to nine years in prison Thursday for a data theft scheme that grew out of rampant false claims of voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential campaign.

District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County official Tina Peters — after previously arguing with her over her continuing to make discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.

“I'm sure you would do it again if you could. “You are as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her at the sentencing. “You are not a hero. You have abused your position and are a charlatan.”

Jurors found Peters guilty in August of allowing a man to misuse a security card to gain access to the Mesa County voting system and of deceiving about that person's identity.

The man was linked to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent proponent of false claims that voting machines were rigged to steal the election from former President Donald Trump.

At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and was “fixated” on election issues after becoming involved with those who questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.

Peters was once a hero of election denialists and has made no apologies for what happened.

Before her sentencing, Peters insisted that everything she did to stamp out fraud was for the greater good.

“I have never done anything with malice to break the law. I just wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court.

When Peters sought to have claims about “wireless devices” and software altering ballot images in voting machines uncorroborated by any legal authority, she drew the ire of the judge, who pointed out that the ballot recount had no discrepancies.

“I’ve let you talk about it enough,” Barrett said. “The voices are the voices.”

The judge later pointed out that Peters continued to make public appearances on shows to sympathetic audiences for her own benefit.

“It’s just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day you took care of the jets, the podcasts and the people flying with you,” Barrett said.

Peters had the right to be defiant, he noted, but it was “certainly not helpful to her fate today.”

The breach cited by Peters heightened concerns that fraudulent election officials sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to attack election processes from within.

Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public official, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, dereliction of duty and failure to obey the Secretary of State.

She was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one count of criminal impersonation.

After her conviction, Peters accused in a post

“I will continue to fight until the truth that was not allowed to be revealed in this trial is revealed. This is a sad day for our country and the world. But in the end we WILL win,” she said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called Peters' conviction a warning that tampering with voting processes will have consequences.