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ItsjustMe

(11,231 posts) Fri Sep 9, 2022, 01:45 AM Sep 2022

Tina Peters pleads not guilty to 10 counts, but her deputy cuts a plea deal to testify against her

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/8/2121566/-MAGA-election-official-pleads-not-guilty-while-her-deputy-throws-her-all-the-way-under-the-bus

On Wednesday, embattled Mesa County Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters pleaded not guilty to charges of election tampering and official misconduct. The charges stem from Peters’ and others’ breach of security protocols, allowing a third-party person without even a smidge of background vetting to fiddle with the election equipment in her county in May 2021. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold promptly launched an investigation of this “serious breach,” leading to replacement of no fewer than “41 pieces of election equipment” that had been compromised by Peters and her conspirators.

Peters is facing 10 counts of violating election laws in service of her MAGA-inspired Big Lie theories that the election was stolen from Donald Trump in 2020. Those counts include “three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.” Her trial is scheduled for March 2023.

There’s good news and bad news for Peters: The good news is that having been recently trounced in the Republican primary for secretary of state,* Peters has all the free time in the world to go to trial. The bad news, however ...