Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters this week sued state and federal officials — including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland — seeking to stop any criminal investigation and prosecution of her related to her conduct in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver on Monday, alleges government officials violated her constitutional rights through their investigations into her alleged misconduct as an election official.
The lawsuit comes months before Peters is scheduled to stand trial in Mesa County. She faces seven felony charges for allegedly allowing a copy of a hard drive to be made during an update of election equipment in 2021 in search of proof of the false conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump.
The charges against her include multiple counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of criminal impersonation, among others.
Peters has pleaded not guilty and has contended the charges are politically motivated.
In the new lawsuit, Peters sued Garland, 21st Judicial District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The lawsuit alleges Peters acted to protect election records within the county’s computer voting systems from being prematurely erased by a software upgrade.
According to the lawsuit, Griswold issued a directive requiring county election officials to install this upgrade, but her staff knew it would prematurely erase at least some of the existing election records on the server. Colorado law requires election officials to preserve election records for at least 25 months after the election, according to the lawsuit.
Peters arranged for independent consultants to make bit-by-bit forensic images of the drive before and after the upgrade took place. Then, she gave the images to computer experts, who, the lawsuit alleges, determined that the upgrade had overwritten the election records.
All activities Peters undertook were constitutional, the lawsuit says, and are protected by the First and 14th amendments, in addition to federal and local laws.
The lawsuit also alleges that the response from state and federal officials — including petitioning Peters to step down from her position and an executed search-and-seizure warrant on her residence that involved unnecessary damage to private property — was harassing and excessive.
The secretary of state reiterated in a written statement that Peters’ actions were illegal.
“Tina Peters compromised her own voting equipment in an attempt to prove the Big Lie and risked her constituents’ constitutional right to vote,” Griswold said. “Her attempts to evade accountability with this frivolous lawsuit will not work.”
Peters was replaced as county clerk and recorder in 2021 after an investigation determined she had breached security protocol and allowed unauthorized access to the county’s electronic election records.
She avoided jail time in April for a misdemeanor obstruction conviction in another case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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