Left: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the East Room at the White House Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP). Right: Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters looks on during sentencing for her election interference case at the Mesa County District Court Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Grand Junction, Colo. (Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP).
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is probing the state conviction of Tina Peters — the first election official found guilty of a felony over 2020 election conspiracy theories — to see if there were “abuses of the criminal justice process” and a legal bias “toward inflicting political pain,” the DOJ says.
Peters, 69, was convicted last August on seven counts of engaging in a security breach related to unauthorized access to voting machines while she worked as a county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado. In October — after a marathon hearing in which Peters repeatedly expressed defiance and stuck to her theories — Peters was sentenced to nine years in state prison for her felony offenses.
“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters at her sentencing.
“You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett blasted. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”
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On Monday, DOJ lawyers filed a “Statement of Interest” in the District of Colorado announcing its review of Peters’ case — saying “reasonable concerns” have been raised recently regarding her conviction and incarceration.
“These concerns relate to, among other things, the exceptionally lengthy sentence imposed relative to the conduct at issue, the First Amendment implications of the trial court’s October 2024 assertions relating to Ms. Peters, and whether Colorado’s denial of bail pending appeal was arbitrary or unreasonable under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments such that relief is appropriate,” the filing said.
Peters and her deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, engaged in election equipment tampering and official misconduct by allowing an unauthorized third party to make copies of voting machine hard drives in 2021, according to prosecutors. They teamed up to do this before and after and after a “trusted build” systems upgrade was carried out in May 2021.
“I’m going to jail over this,” Peters repeatedly told Knisley after overseeing the security breach and finding out that photos from her computer were posted online while she was at a “cyber symposium” forum in South Dakota, which was organized by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a fellow elections conspiracy theorist.
Knisley testified at Peters’ trial about her fear of being arrested, saying she told Knisley “I’m f—ed” after learning that the images were posted on a conspiracy website after being shared with a pro surfer from California named Conan Hayes, whom Peters hired as a “consultant,” according to Colorado Newsline.
Knisley — who pleaded guilty to trespassing, misconduct and violation of duty — claimed state passwords and other sensitive information were photographed and obtained unlawfully, then mailed to Hayes on a hard drive; that data was later shared online during the cyber symposium.
Authorities said Knisley made sure security cameras were turned off in the room where the voting machines were stored when the photos were taken. She was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and 150 hours of community service in exchange for her testimony against Peters.
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According to Trump’s DOJ, Peters is currently pursuing a direct appeal of her “underlying nonviolent convictions” and nine-year sentence while locked up in Colorado. The department claims she suffers from “serious health issues” and that her physical and mental health have “deteriorated” while incarcerated.
“Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case,” the DOJ statement of interest said. “Parallel to these proceedings and Ms. Peters’ direct appeal, the Department of Justice is reviewing cases across the nation for abuses of the criminal justice process. … This review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado’s prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was ‘oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.’”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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