MESA COUNTY, Colo. — Tina Peters, Colorado's most prominent election denier, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in hopes of stopping the ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions against her relating to the alleged breach of Mesa County's voting systems in 2021.
The former Mesa County Clerk has said she turned over a copy of voting system data to fellow election conspiracy theorists in an attempt to prove voter fraud. However, Peters claims in her lawsuit she copied voter data because she believed a software update would wipe out records of the 2020 election.
Peters had a consultant make a “forensic image” of the elections software before the software update by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. In the lawsuit, she claims it was done "to comply with her legal obligations to preserve election records" as county clerk.
She is set to go to trial in February on 10 counts related to the Mesa County breach, but that isn't her only legal battle.
In April, Peters was sentenced in a second case for obstruction charges that stemmed from her improperly recording a court hearing on her iPad for her deputy clerk in 2022. She was detained after struggling with an officer who was trying to execute a warrant to take the iPad.
Peters claims the local, state and federal investigations into her are retaliation.
In addition to the United States government, the lawsuit also names Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the Mesa County District Attorney, and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, claiming their offices are harassing Peters by continuing to investigate her.
According to the suit, Peters believes the defendants violated her constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association and right to petition the government to redress her grievances.
Despite these investigations, Peters was offered an official role by the Colorado Republican Party working on “election integrity."
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