A Colorado grand jury has indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and her deputy clerk Belinda Knisley on a combined 16 counts, including seven felonies, for their alleged involvement in a breach of Mesa County voter data, The Denver Post reported Wednesday.
The indictment accuses Peters and Knisley of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiring to commit the same offense, violation of duty, and failing to comply with the secretary of state. Peters also faces charges of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identify theft, first-degree official misconduct.
The grand jury was empaneled at the end of January to investigate the election equipment tampering and official misconduct allegations and returned its findings Tuesday evening, according to The Denver Post.
Peters, a Republican, has been charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and identity theft, all felonies, according to the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office. She is also charged with first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state, all misdemeanors.
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Peters and Knisley, both Trump supporters, are accused of putting in motion an elaborate scheme to access voting machines, which were under their office’s care in May 2021. They allegedly plotted to turn off security cameras that monitored the machines, and allowed an unauthorized person to access those machines once security footage went dark.
In August, voter information from the machines appeared online, published by conspiracy theorists like Ron Watkins. Peters soon became a regular on the conspiracy circuit, speaking at MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium” on supposed voter fraud.
As noted by The Post, “the leaked data did not show election fraud.”
The Grand Jury recommended the pair be held without bail.
