June 27, 2022 12:31 PM UTC

Tina Peters Pulls Lauren Boebert Under The Bus

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The New York Times has a feature-length profile up today on Colorado Republican Secretary of State candidate Tina Peters, who is by all metrics the frontrunner in tomorrow’s primary for the GOP nomination despite facing multiple criminal charges related to a breach of election system security on her watch in Mesa County in a failed attempt to supply evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Peters’ campaign for Secretary of State has been aided significantly by a lackluster challenge from GOP ex-Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson, as well as Peters’ status as a national celebrity in the pro-Trump election conspiracy movement.

Discussing her alleged crimes with the Times, Clerk Peters made a newsworthy allegation that could explain a lot about the mysterious rift that has developed between supporters of Peters and freshman GOP far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert:

Ms. Peters did not just stumble into the world of election conspiracy theories. A review of public statements and interviews with people involved in her case showed she was repeatedly assisted by a loose network of election deniers, some of whom worked alongside Donald J. Trump’s legal team to try to subvert the presidential election in 2020. They are still working to undermine confidence in elections today.

That network’s involvement is just one of several bizarre plot points in Ms. Peters’s case. The Mesa County breach involved a former surfer who was dressed as a computer “nerd” and made a FaceTime call during the operation, reporting by The New York Times shows. Afterward, the crew shared their loot — images of voting machine data — at a conference streamed online, advertising the effort to thousands. On Friday, Ms. Peters told The Times that her congresswoman, Representative Lauren Boebert, “encouraged me to go forward with the imaging.”

Full stop! That’s Tina Peters accusing Rep. Boebert of encouraging Peters to commit the acts for which she stands accused of felony and official misconduct charges. If it’s true it’s a huge problem for Boebert, one that could (or for all we know may have already) drag the freshman representative with her own lengthy baggage train back into an investigation she has already once been accused of improperly meddling in.

A press officer for Ms. Boebert, a Republican, called the claim false. [Pols emphasis]

Last November, Boebert arranged for a meeting with fellow Republican Mesa County DA Dan Rubinstein to investigate “concern” expressed by “many” of Boebert’s constituents over the investigation into Peters’ alleged misconduct. But instead of emerging from that meeting critical of the investigation and defending Tina Peters, Boebert praised Rubinstein and expressed her confidence that the case against Peters was being handled fairly.

Rep. Boebert and Clerk Peters have more in common than geographic proximity. Boebert’s original campaign manager, far-right Western Slope activist Sherronna Bishop, has become Peters’ closest friend and confidante since the investigation into the theft of election data from Peters’ office became public. One of Boebert’s prospective Democratic opponents in the CD-3 race has already called for an investigation into the relationship between Peters and Boebert, which Boebert responded to with her now-boilerplate threat to sue.

For whatever reason, which we attribute to having less to lose, Tina Peters is much more willing to talk about all of this than Lauren Boebert! It’s pretty evident at this point that a major falling out occurred between Boebert and Peters–and even though Peters is now a major figure in the election conspiracy theory that Boebert vociferously supported and has never once renounced, Boebert wants nothing to do with Peters.

We want to know why. And we’ve got a suspicion Tina Peters wants to tell us more.