TUESDAY UPDATE: 9NEWS reports on what looks like authentic pushback against the Colorado Republican Party’s support for indicted ex-Clerk Tina Peters, with dozens of Republicans not named Dave Williams slamming the move as an embrace of “alternate facts” too far:
“Tina Peters is not a hero,” the open letter reads, in part. “We ask our fellow Colorado Republican Party members to support your local Republican Clerk and Recorders, who administer with integrity, an election system that serves our Constitution and every Coloradan casting a ballot.”
Signatories to the letter distributed to Colorado Republicans on Monday and Tuesday include dozens of current and former GOP county clerks, along with five former GOP Colorado Secretaries of State: Mary Estill Buchanan, Mike Coffman, Donetta Davidson, Gigi Dennis, and Wayne Williams.
“Peters did not uncover any fraud or threats to Mesa County elections. In the end, she herself was the threat to election integrity in the county,” their letter reads. “Her actions made elections less secure and more susceptible to nefarious activity.”
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With the long-awaited trial of ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on a range of felony and other charges stemming from a failed attempt to provide evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump set to begin later this week, Peters’ supporters have been ramping up with a call for police officers in uniform to descend on the courtroom in Grand Junction to intimidate jurors “show support,” along with a daily “prayer warfare” conference call in which devotees beseech the Almighty for supernatural intervention into what otherwise looks like an airtight case.
Late last week, not surprisingly but still worthy of note, the Colorado Republican Party led by congressional candidate Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams threw the party’s full-throated support behind Peters, with an email blast directing to her fundraising page and recycling the completely discredited claims that Peters’ alleged misconduct actually found evidence to support the “Big Lie.”
Please keep Tina Peters in your prayers while she fights the establishment and our corrupt judicial system in her upcoming trial which will begin on February 9th in Mesa County. Tina has risked so much to expose the fraud by doing her job as a county clerk to preserve election records for 25 months, as required by law, and made digital copies of files before and after the so-called ‘trusted build’. Her due diligence proved that there were indeed election files that were erased. Because of this revelation and her efforts to inform the entire country that our elections are compromised, she is facing seven felony and three misdemeanor charges. These charges are “Retaliation, Persecution, and Prosecution for preserving our election records and exposing the fraud inside of the machines”. We must all unite in prayer and support for Tina Peters so that the jury sees this for what it really is and acquits her of all charges.
We are praying for you, dear Tina. You are loved and appreciated by all.
Respectfully,
Chairman Dave Williams
Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman
Secretary Anna Ferguson
To suggest that Peters is “loved and appreciated by all” is pretty audacious considering how Williams’ predecessor as GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown warned Republicans against public statements of support for Peters in light of the severity of her alleged crimes. All of the above contentions that Peters’ actions actually uncovered evidence of election fraud have been debunked multiple times, most recently by the Republican Mesa County DA prosecuting the case. Here we have the state Republican Party disregarding all of this and throwing whatever remaining credibility they have as an organization behind a criminal defendant whose alternative reality as a “whistleblower” exposing the grand conspiracy against Trump is about to come crashing down in a court of law. At the hands of a Republican prosecutor, with testimony from Peters’ own Republican former aides.
Don’t ask us how they plan to reconcile this conflict on the other side. All we can say is the partisan foils against “Big Lie” cases elsewhere…won’t work in Mesa County.
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There you have it. The Colorado GOP openly advocates lawbreaking.
Question: Are the rank and file Gand Junction municipal police as wacky as the "constitutional sheriffs"?
If I were a religious person, I would counter Dave's prayers by praying for sanity and a just conviction. Instead, I'll just wait for the DA to do his job, the defense attorneys to do theirs, and the case to shake out as it will. Ordinary criminal proceeding for an extremely ordinary human being deluded by self-righteousness and self-importance.
I think the best case scenario for the DA is a hung jury (metaphorically, not literally, although after what some folks wanted to do with Mike Pence, I suppose anything is possible).
In Mesa County, I can't imagine there will not be at least one certifiably wacky MAGA zealot who makes it onto the jury and into the deliberating room. I pity the more rational fellow jurors during deliberations.
I expect competent attorneys doing a good job with voir dire will find individuals who are NOT highly politicized for the jury.
Then, the combination of video recordings, testimony from former associates, records of what was done to the hard drive, Peters' OWN recorded remarks at MAGA meetings, and a clear explanation of election law will make it very difficult to mount much of a defense.
Trying to overlook all of that will make a challenging environment in deliberations.
Luckily, MAGA followers are pretty easy to trigger. As you say, competent lawyers should be able to smoke them out and excuse them.
The madhouse of Republican politics is wide-spread and expanding rapidly, but I am proud to say western Colorado is home to two of the GQPs brightest stars. Tina and Lauren grew estranged from each other when even Lauren could see Tina was eventually going to be in BIG trouble and bailed. Public opinion, even in this jurisdiction, has stilled the voices of many of the less strident Boebert blowhards and Tina troublemakers. Maybe the jury pool won’t be overwhelmed.
"MAGA followers are pretty easy to trigger."
Yes, but they are required to remove their tinfoil hats when entering the courtroom.
And folks do not always tell the truth during jury selection.
Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado :: 580 U.S. ___ (2017) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Shades of the 2022 Colorado GOP state convention, where success and fealty to Tina Peters were directly proportional. What a fucking clown show.
Her trial was just moved to july 31 thru Aug 12. She fired her attys today.
Just like the "Never Trump" Colorado GOP from 2016, I imagine this welcome outcry to not support Tina Peters from the not-super-crazy GOP members to be brief and unremarkable.
I would love to be wrong though.