Tina Peters, a crusading promoter of election fraud claims and former Mesa County Clerk, begins her jury trial Friday, Feb. 9, in Grand Junction, Colo. The area is represented by firebrand congresswoman Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose staff has aided Peters’ efforts.
Peters faces 10 charges, including seven felonies, for allowing unauthorized people to copy secure data from voting machines she oversaw, sharing the data online and at a conference hosted by Mike Lindell of MyPillow fame, and trying to cover up her crimes.
“They’re coming after Christians.”
“They’re coming after Christians,” Peters claimed in a December podcast. She draws much of her support from evangelical churches and the Truth and Liberty Coalition, the political arm of health-and-wealth preacher Andrew Wommack.
“They’re coming after our Constitution,” Peters said. “And when I say ‘they,’ these are global elitists that want to take down America because they cannot do what they want to do for a one-world government until they do that.”
State cases against Trump allies like Peters are moving forward in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, even as federal charges against Trump for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election await their day in court.
Data provided by Peters and others has been used in a series of reports promoted by Lindell and Wommack who claim that in 2020, machines from Dominion Voting Systems experienced “a critical security failure” that allowed fake ballots to be tallied.
The reports also claim “the Dominion voting machine was illegally embedded with 36 wireless devices which could enable cell phones and other external computers to access the machine and alter the election results,” a claim debunked by experts and that Dominion has prevailed against in court in a lawsuit against Fox News.
Peters denies she did anything wrong, says she was acting as a whistleblower and claims God is on her side. But she has faced a series of setbacks:
- She was prevented from having anything to do with elections as she served out the remainder of her term as county clerk.
- She mounted an unsuccessful run for Colorado secretary of state in 2022.
- In 2023, she was sentenced to home detention and community service in a separate misdemeanor obstruction conviction.
- In November, a judge dismissed her final attempt to delay her trial.
- Sandra Brown and Belinda Knisley, two of her former clerks and partners in crime, pleaded guilty to similar charges and have agreed to testify against her.
Wommack held a 2021 rally for Peters that raised $1,000 and he has featured her as a speaker at his political events.
Tina Peters being sworn in as county clerk. (Screenshot)
Peters is trying to raise $1 million on GiveSendGo, a $100 million Christian crowdfunding platform that has become a haven for “J6 Patriots” and antisemites. She’s raised nearly $33,000 so far.
“Unite With Tina’s Fight to Save America” pleads the campaign, which features a trailer for a movie telling her story: “Tina has continued to be inundated with lawfare and personal attacks costing her savings in an effort to wake people up to see the dangers of forces wanting to take our very liberties.”
One donor testified: “You reminded me of Joseph in the Old Testament, who was unjustly accused and imprisoned for doing the RIGHT thing.”
The Colorado Times Recorder summarized the charges Peters faces: three counts of felony attempts to influence a public servant, one count of felony conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant, felony criminal impersonation, two counts of felony conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, felony identify theft, misdemeanor first-degree official misconduct, misdemeanor violation of duty and misdemeanor failing to comply with the secretary of state.
Her accomplice Belinda Knisley is charged with three counts of felony attempting to influence a public servant, one count of felony conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant, misdemeanor violation of duty, and misdemeanor failing to comply with the secretary of state.