Mesa County, Colorado’s former clerk and recorder was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday for orchestrating a security breach in the wake of the 2020 election. Tina Peters was convicted by a jury in August and will serve her sentence first in the Mesa County Jail and then in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
“I'm convinced you would do it all over again if you could,” 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters during sentencing. “You’re as defiant a defendant as this court has seen.” The judge denied Peters’ request for probation or community correction.
"Prison is the only place that duly meets the purposes of sentence in this matter," the judge said.
Barrett also called Peters a “charlatan” who used her position “to peddle snake oil,” according to NBC News. During her sentencing hearing, Peters lamented she was “very taken aback by how awful I've been depicted,” said she was a “child of God,” and argued that she would not be able to get the right kind of magnetic mattress at the Department of Corrections if imprisoned there.
Peters was found guilty of using her position to breach security and tamper with election equipment at the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's office in May 2021. Prosecutors said she was hoping to collect evidence that Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election.
The state opened an investigation into the potential tampering in August 2021, after images of files and copies of election equipment hard drives appeared on election conspiracy websites. Not long after, Secretary of State Jena Griswold ordered the county to replace 41 pieces of compromised election equipment.
In May 2021, Peters reportedly stole freelance software engineer Gerald Wood’s identity in order to create a security access card. She then told her deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, to turn off security cameras trained on the room that was breached. The day before the election equipment was due for a software upgrade, Peters, along with someone connected to MyPillow CEO and Trump loyalist Mike Lindell, went into the secure room and copied files from the equipment. Both Knisley and Wood cut plea deals with prosecutors in return for their testimony against Peters.
Peters was a darling of election denier circles following the 2020 election. She ran for secretary of state while being investigated for her crimes—and accused her own party of rigging the election against her when she lost.
A Mesa County commissioner said Peters’ actions cost taxpayers $1.4 million and necessitated several recounts, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Peters was facing up to 20 years in prison and kicked up a really big fuss when she was first arrested in 2022. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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