Mesa County Clerk and Colorado Republican candidate for secretary of state Tina Peters reacts to early election returns during a primary night watch party at the Wide Open Saloon on June 28, 2022 in Sedalia, Colorado.Â
Marc Piscotty | Getty Images
Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who espoused the false conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election due to ballot fraud, was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for crimes related to a breach of her county’s voting system.
Peters was immediately taken into custody after Judge Matthew Barrett rejected her lawyer’s request that she remain free.
“I’m convinced you do it all over again if you could,” Barrett said in scathing remarks before sentencing the former Mesa County clerk
“You’re as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen,” the judge told Peters, who had requested probation as prosecutors asked that she receive the 20-year maximum.
Peters was convicted by a trial jury in August of seven criminal counts, including attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, and failure to comply with secretary of state requirements.
Tina Peters, former Mesa County, Colo., clerk, listens during her trial, Friday, March 3, 2023, in Grand Junction, Colo.
Scott Crabtree | AP
She was accused of using another person’s security badge to allow someone else to gain access to her county’s election system.
The person who used that badge was affiliated with Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow and a leading proponent of the claim that Trump’s defeat for a second term was due to ballot fraud.
Peters had falsely accused Dominion Voting Systems, which made Mesa County’s election system, of participating in the purported scheme against Trump.
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