No one expected contrition from Tina Peters, the former county clerk from Grand Junction, after she was convicted this week of seven criminal charges related to her 2021 election tampering scheme. When the court adjourned, she hit the airwaves to play victim, wax religious, and even tweak the conspiracy theory plotline.
Like other election deniers including fellow Coloradan Rebecca Lavrenz who was sentenced this week for participating in the January 6 assault on the Capitol, Peters continues to peddle the stolen election conspiracy theory to anyone who will buy it.
There’s a reason Peters, Lavrenz, pillow-magnate Mike Lindell, former president Donald Trump and other purveyors of misinformation have doubled down on deceit; they’re too invested to quit now.
If Stop the Steal was a garden-variety conspiracy theory, it wouldn’t matter. The delusions of flat earthers, 911 truthers, and chem trail trackers have no impact. This conspiracy theory, however, has undermined faith in U.S. elections, endangered election workers, and all but destroyed the credibility of a once formidable political party. Worse, the incendiary power of the lie smolders under the surface of the 2024 campaign. If Trump loses again in November, January 6 could be a mere prologue.
Peters involvement in Stop the Steal began in May 2021 when she and two of her employees hatched a plan to get Conan Hayes, a California surfer turned cyber sleuth for election denier Mike Lindell, into a Dominion Voting Systems computer upgrade with a stolen security badge. Hayes took copies and videos of the voting system which were later made public.
For her role, Peters was convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, official misconduct, attempting to influence a public servant, and violation of duty. In October, she will receive her sentence which could include significant jail time.
When the trial concluded, Peters went on Real America’s Voice, the DIY “news station” hosted by Steve Bannon (when he’s not in prison) to talk about how she, a “deep-state indicted election whistleblower,” was victimized by the court and the media. She also accused Serbia of being the epicenter of Dominion Voting Systems’ vote-flipping treachery. During the trial, her lawyer suggested China or Canada may have hacked the ballot machines in 2020. Why do Eastern Europeans always land the best bad-guy roles?
On social media, Peters blasted Dominion and the Colorado Secretary of State’s lawyers while lauding her own efforts with a Bible verse. On Lindell’s website, she compared herself to Jesus on the cross.
The need to be a hero of Biblical proportions also animates Rebecca Lavrenz, a Colorado Springs-area woman who calls herself the J6 Praying Grandma. She was sentenced this week to six months of home confinement and a $103,000 fine for her participation in the January 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She, too, is unrepentant. Although the judge ordered Lavrenz off the Internet for six months, her fundraising account, which has raised twice as much money as the fine, continues to grift.
According to the crowdfunding site, God chose Lavernz to carry His presence into the Capitol to “reconfirm the covenant …this country was established ‘…for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.’” The phrase, plucked context-free from the Mayflower Compact, refers to their voyage to “plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia.” As a justification for breaking the law four centuries later the Pilgrim’s contract makes as much sense as saying that the creator of the universe needed a lift indoors. Is that in Two Corinthians? Just asking.
The jury and judge didn’t buy it. Now if Edmond Burke could just send a cease and desist letter from the grave ordering Lavernz and every other election denier to stop abusing the quote attributed to him: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Following a violent mob into the U.S. Capitol hell-bent on subverting a presidential election is not what the British statesman had in mind.
These grand rationalizations, however absurd, may be or may not be sincere but they are self-serving. Peters, Lavernz, and Lindell have had more than 15 minutes of fame. When they leapt at the chance to be a hero of the story and they passed over mountains of evidence that it was all a lie. After four years, numerous court cases, defamation suits, and millions of dollars spent looking for proof of a stolen election and not one shred found, they cling to the delusion. As purveyors of that delusion, witting or not, they must be held accountable.
Did Donald Trump truly believe the 2020 election was stolen or did he cynically brandish the lie in hopes of overturning the election? The latter seems more likely but who knows? Self-interest deludes us all to one degree or another. One thing is certain; he will invoke the false allegation again if he loses. Trump continues to say he won the 2020 election. He has cast dispersion on mail-in voting systems including Colorado’s. This is groundwork.
One-time confidant, John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor recently told CNN, “We know one thing for sure: Trump never loses. And so if he’s not declared the winner of 2024, as in 2020, it must be because he was treated unfairly yet again; it was stolen yet again.”
Heaven help us.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.
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Originally Published: August 16, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
