Tina PetersA former Republican county clerk in Colorado who pushed the false conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election resulting from voter fraud was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for crimes related to a violation of her county's voting system.
“You’re not a hero,” state District Court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters. “You are a charlatan who has used and continues to use your former position in office to sell a snake oil that has proven time and time again to be crap.”
“Their lies are well documented and these convictions are serious. I have no doubt you would do it again if you could,” Barrett told the 68-year-old ex Mesa County Clerk who was accused of using one other person's security badge to provide one other person access to her county's voting system.
The person using this badge was related to Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow and a number one proponent of the claim that Trump's defeat for a second term was resulting from voter fraud.
“You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen,” Barrett told Peters.
Peters, who had applied for a suspended sentence, told the judge before sentencing: “I have never maliciously broken the law. I just wanted to serve the people of Mesa County.”
Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubenstein told Barrett, “Ms. Peters has repeatedly demonstrated that she does not believe she did anything wrong.”
“She provided the court with a statement in the pre-sentence investigation report in which she made excuses and justifications, but never once admitted that she had done anything wrong and that this was not the right way to deal with it,” Rubenstein said.
“What does every 12-step program start with? It starts with acknowledging that you have a problem, and she didn't do that, and there's no point trying to rehabilitate someone who doesn't think they've done anything wrong.”
Peters was immediately taken into custody after Barrett rejected her attorney's request for release.
Peters was convicted by a jury in August of seven felonies, including attempting to influence a public official, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, dereliction of duty and failure to comply with the Secretary of State's requirements.
Before she was sentenced, Matt Crane, director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told Barrett that Peters' false accusation “in real and concrete ways … has led directly to death threats and general threats to the lives and families of the people who are there.” work.” our elections.”
“She has willingly supported people in our country who believe that violence is a way to have a say,” Crane said. “She knowingly lit a fire in others who choose threats as a means to get their way.”
Shortly after Peters was convicted, Republican presidential candidate Trump told attendees at a campaign rally in Michigan, “We won, we won, we won.”
“It was a rigged election,” Trump said.
“That’s why I’m doing it again. If I thought I lost, I wouldn't do it again,” said Trump, who’s running against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, on this 12 months's presidential race.
Trump is being prosecuted in federal court in Washington, D.C. and in state court in Atlanta. The charges relate to his efforts to reverse President Joe Biden's victory over him within the 2020 election.
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