A Colorado judge on Thursday issued a warrant for the arrest of Tina Peters, the Mesa County Clerk who is being charged with a breach of election equipment after the 2020 presidential game, for violating the terms of her bail that prevented her from running. to travel without court permission.
The judge, Matthew D. Barrett of the 21st Judicial District of Colorado, also withdrew her $25,000 cash bail and demanded that she be held in prison pending a hearing.
Ms. Peters traveled to Las Vegas this week to speak at an event hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a conservative group of county sheriffs and their allies. According to court documents, she was denied permission from the judge to travel outside of Colorado.
Ms. Peters was considered a flight risk and was ordered to remain in the state after being indicted in March on criminal charges, including seven felonies, which arose from a plan to copy sensitive election software from voting machines in an attempt to prove that the 2020 presidential election was tainted by fraud.
But because she was running for the Republican nomination for Colorado Secretary of State, Ms. Peters was allowed to travel outside the state for political purposes, provided she notified the court of her plans.
She lost her primary bid last month, and on Monday Judge Barrett ruled she would need court approval again before leaving the state. Ms Peters has continued to claim without evidence that her election loss was the result of fraud.
In a sign that Mrs. Peters had not yet left for Las Vegas when Monday’s warrant arrived, Mesa County District Attorney Daniel P. Rubinstein said in a court file that Ms. Peters was in the Mesa County detention facility that day, “nearly five hours after the court restricted all out-of-state travel.”
On Thursday afternoon, Harvey A. Steinberg, an attorney representing Ms. Peters, filed a motion to quash the arrest warrant, arguing that she had told his office that she intended to travel and that his office had not had the necessary notice. filed with the court, meaning Ms. Peters was unaware that the court was unaware of her journey.
“Mrs. Peters has not knowingly breached the terms of the bonds,” wrote Mr. Steinberg.
Ms. Peters did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear if she was still in Las Vegas.
During her Las Vegas speech, Ms. Peters claimed that Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican also from western Colorado, had dinner with several people who helped carry out the plot to copy election data.
Benjamin Stout, Ms. Boebert’s communications director, said on Thursday that Ms. Peters’ “claims are not true”.
Ms. Peters had previously told DailyExpertNews that Ms. Boebert “encouraged” her to go ahead with the surgery. Mrs. Boebert’s campaign denied those allegations.
One of Ms. Peters’ top aides, Sandra Brown, turned herself in on Monday after she was charged with her role in the alleged plan to extract data from the county’s election machines. Ms. Brown, who was the county election manager, is facing several charges, including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempting to influence an official. Her arrest was previously reported by The Daily Sentinel.
The court records show that Mrs. Brown was involved in the alleged plot from the very beginning. On April 23, Ms. Peters, Ms. Brown, another assistant, and Sherronna Bishop, a former Ms. Boebert campaign manager, met Douglas Frank, a math and science teacher at an Ohio high school whose debunked theories have influenced election conspirators, according to data.
Court documents cite a taped conversation in which Ms. Peters asked Mr. Frank if he could open the machines, but he said it was against the law based on provincial contracts. Ms. Bishop then suggested using a routine software procedure known as a “trusted build” to get into the machines, according to the documents.
Mrs. Bishop has not been charged with any wrongdoing. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A total of three officers in Ms. Peters’ office are facing criminal charges in connection with the settlement; Belinda Knisley, Ms Peters’ deputy, was indicted on six charges in March.
