MAGA-supporting Colorado election official under investigation is arrested at bagel shop

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday February 09, 2022 · 9:01 AM PST

2022/02/09 · 09:01

On Tuesday, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters was briefly arrested. The Denver Post reports that she was at a Main Street Bagels in Grand Junction, Colorado, at the time of her arrest. Peters is the same Mesa County Clerk who has been making a spectacle of herself by promoting the Big Lie and flying on MyPillow owner Mike Lindell’s private jet—all while under investigation for committing a major breach of security and compromising the voting machines under her care.

The Mesa County District Attorney’s Office has been looking for an iPad that Peters owns. The reason is that a court previously ordered that iPad to be searched for evidence after Peters illegally recorded a court hearing on Monday, Feb. 7. According to the report, Peters was later released “pending charges,” still at the bagel shop.

Mesa County spokesperson Stephanie Reecy told the Post that Peters’ arrest was unrelated to the ongoing security breach investigations against her. That is only half true.

The court hearing that Tina Peters is suspected of having illegally recorded was for Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley’s criminal case, Knisley is the other Mesa County elections’ official who has been accused of breaking security, turning off cameras, and allowing a third-party, completely un-vetted MAGA-toon into the secure room where elections equipment in kept.

Peters and Knisley are suspected of having allowed outside “consultant” Gerald Wood access to Dominion voting machines before a “trusted build.” Adding to the suspected guilt level of the act, Peters initially listed Wood as an “administrative assistant,” trying to change that to “consultant” after it became clear that neither distinction gave her the ability to obliterate election security protocols. The motivation for doing this seems to have been a MAGA-conspiratorial delusion that Wood would be able to download and save all of the information on the machines before “deep state” technicians deleted proof that the ghosts of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro rigged the election with George Soro’s Judaism.

This brings us back to the Knisley case. Knisley was arrested during the summer for having illegally used Peters’ Mesa County work station to access Mesa County’s secure computer network two days after Knisley had been suspended from the building, her access denied, due to a reportedly unrelated workplace infraction. “Upon further investigation, Mesa County IT discovered that during the 08/25/21 session logged into Peters credentials, items were sent to the print server, but were not ultimately printed. What those items were was not immediately clear and remains under investigation.”

On Monday, during Knisley’s court hearing connected to the above matter, Judge Matthew Barrett asked if Peters was making a recording on her iPad. This is not allowed as many courts justifiably worry that witnesses and officers of the court may be influenced or bullied by the threat of public exposure.

During a status hearing for Knisley’s case, a deputy DA and paralegal said they heard Peters claim in court that she wasn’t recording and that those who accused of her of such were not being truthful, but that they saw Peters using the iPad to record, or attempt to record and then stopping it when she was discovered, according to the warrant.

Kyle Clark of 9News posted video of officers handcuffing an angry Peters. At one point she attempts to kick the officers as she complains the handcuffs hurt.

UPDATE: Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters appeared to attempt to kick a law enforcement officer while struggling with police during her arrest. This is video from a witness. pic.twitter.com/TILJ1198BV
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) February 8, 2022

Peters and Knisley were barred from the 2021 elections and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has continued to pursue Peters and Knisley’s permanent ban from overseeing Mesa County elections in any capacity going forward.

Peters is just one of at least three MAGA-related elections officials under investigation for dubious dealings surrounding the 2020 election.

MAGA-supporting Colorado election official under investigation is arrested at bagel shop

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