Republican county clerk indicted by Colorado grand jury over election tampering

DENVER — A grand jury has indicted a Republican county clerk from western Colorado over accusations that she improperly permitted someone to copy access passwords and other files from a secure voting system and post them online, exposing the machines to hackers.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters has been charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, and one count each of conspiracy to commit attempting to influence, criminal impersonation, impersonation conspiracy, identity theft, official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state's office, according to the indictment.

Most of the charges are felonies and officials have issued a warrant for her arrest following a joint investigation by local law enforcement and the FBI, along with the Colorado Attorney General's office. Peters' deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, was also charged by the grand jury, according to the indictment. Peters is running for Colorado secretary of state, and Republican party officials have asked her to suspend campaigning until the case is resolved.

The indictment says Peters and Knisley last spring conspired to turn off security cameras in the room where the voting machines were stored, improperly granted access to an outside observer by stealing someone else's identity, and then refused to turn over documentation and records to state elections officials investigating the possible breach, which occurred during what was supposed to be a secure "trusted build" software update by state officials.

"Beginning in April 2021 and in advance of the May 25-26, 2021, trusted build, Tina Peters and Belinda Knisley either as principal actors and or acting as complicators devised and executed a deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment, and set in motion eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people," the indictment says.

The indictment states Peters and Knisley pretended to hire an IT consultant, used his name and Social Security number to pass a background check and acquire a security clearance and access badge, and then gave that badge to an as-yet-unidentified person so they could enter the secure room where the machines were stored. They also told the normal county elections supervisor that the unidentified person would be taking her place and barred her from watching what they did.

Peters, who could not immediately be reached, has argued the files posted online from the machines she supervised demonstrate flaws in the systems. State elections officials and the manufacturer, Dominion Voting Systems, say Peters misunderstands how they work.

In a joint statement, the Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubenstein and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser declined to discuss further specifics: "The grand jury, randomly selected from the same pool of citizens that elected clerk Tina Peters and chosen months before any of these alleged offenses occurred, concluded there is probable cause that clerk Peters and deputy clerk Knisley committed crimes."

Peters is an election security conspiracy theorist aligned with former President Donald Trump and MyPillow owner Mike Lindell, who has repeatedly pushed baseless theories about the accuracy of the 2020 election. Lindell and other election conspiracy backers are being sued for defamation by Dominion over their claims the Colorado-based and widely used election systems were rigged, fraudulent or altered to cost Trump the 2020 presidential election.

A judge last fall banned Peters from overseeing Mesa County's November elections over security concerns. The county was also forced to acquire new voting machines after state officials and Dominion concluded they couldn't trust the ones Peters had accessed because someone had made changes, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation.

Peters has argued that people have lost confidence in the security of voting systems, and federal officials are trying to take over elections at the national level, further eroding trust.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, leaders of the Colorado Republican Party urged Peter’s to suspend her campaign. They noted the charges against her would be prosecuted by a Republican district attorney.

“Today, we are asking Clerk Peters to consider what is best for the Republican Party in Colorado and act accordingly as she avails herself of our judicial system,” the party said.

Peters is also facing separate local charges of obstructing government operations and obstructing a peace officer after she struggled with police officers detaining her over separate accusations that she illegally recorded a court hearing with her iPad.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republican county clerk Tina Peters indicted on election charges