April 10, 2023 12:22 PM UTC

Four Months In An Ankle Bracelet, But Tina Peters Free For Now

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced this morning after her conviction of obstruction in one of the cases on the periphery of the larger investigation into the theft of proprietary election data in her failed quest to prove Donald Trump should still be President.

As readers know, Peters has recently accepted a position of some executive description with the Colorado Republican Party under new chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams. Under the terms of Peters’ sentence on today’s charge she’ll be able to work, but not without restrictions on her movement. Today’s sentence was also stayed to allow for an appeal:

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters escaped jail time in her misdemeanor conviction of obstruction of government operations, but was given 120 hours of community service, four months of home detention with an ankle monitor and a small fine.

That sentence, however, was immediately stayed by County Judge Bruce Raaum after Peters’ defense attorney, Harvey Steinberg, announced he would appeal her conviction and sentence.

During her sentencing hearing today, Steinberg argued that because it was her first conviction, and because she was just exercising her rights to question government, that she should not receive jail time. She could have received as much as six months in jail.

As a candidate for Secretary of State last year also under indictment, Peters stretched the privileges afforded pre-trial defendants to the max, coming close to jail for unauthorized interstate travel. Assuming this sentence holds up on appeal, it will be interesting to see how much Peters pushes the limits of her home detention by traveling to Republican Party “work events” that could be across the state or even the nation. As Ashby reported last month when Peters was found guilty on this obstruction charge, the next step in Peters’ journey through the legal system will be contempt of court charges stemming from the use of the iPad she was convicted of obstruction for trying to physically keep from investigators to illegally record court proceedings.

Peters’ “main event” trial on felony charges related to the Dominion Voting Systems data theft, which has been postponed repeatedly, is where her fate in a long-term sense will be determined. These preliminary charges are just addressing the ways Peters made things worse for herself during the investigation.

All we can say is, it’s a PR (and HR) headache that Dave Williams has willingly taken on.