Tina Peters’ former staff members testify against her in Mesa County election security trial • Colorado Newsline

August 8, 2024 Vaseline blog 0

Tina Peters’ former staff members testify against her in Mesa County election security trial • Colorado Newsline

Belinda Knisley, the former Mesa County chief deputy clerk, testified Wednesday that her former boss, then-county Clerk Tina Peters, repeatedly told her, “I’m going to go to jail over this,” regarding a security breach in the elections office she oversaw in 2021.

Peters apparently believed she was going to be arrested, after learning that computer system images she assisted in obtaining had been posted online, according to Knisley’s testimony. The computer and password photos were allegedly taken during a May 2021 Mesa County elections software update, also known as a “trusted build.” In August 2021, Peters learned that the images had been made public while attending a “cyber symposium” in South Dakota, organized by elections conspiracy theorist and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.

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At first, Knisley didn’t believe her friend Peters had done anything wrong. But that changed after Knisley learned more details about unusual events in the elections office in 2021, she said. Knisley was charged with lesser crimes for her own part of her assisting Peters in the scheme.

“I believe actions taken after the fact, and the lying is what has caused her to be in trouble,” Knisley told swears.

In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury charged Peters, a Republican, with three criminal counts of attempting to influence a public servant, three criminal counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one criminal count of identity theft. She also faces three misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, election violations and failure to comply with the Colorado secretary of state’s office — actions allegedly committed during a quest to prove Mesa County’s election tabulating machines were somehow faulty.

‘I can only tell the truth’

Peters told Knisley “I’m f***ed,” after learning the images she captured were posted on a conspiracy website, Knisley testified.

“I had no idea what she was talking about,” Knisley said.

Prior testimony established that those images were stored on a hard drive and mailed to Conan Hayes, a former professional surfer in California whom Peters is said to have secretly hired as a “consultant.”

Knisley testified that during the trusted build Peters had videotaped secretary of state passwords and other sensitive information, and the information was then mailed to a man that she now knows was Hayes. Hayes was also said to be present at the trusted build. Peters told Knisley that she and Hayes had taken pictures during the trusted build to preserve records she believed the secretary of state would delete.

The passwords were made public at the time of the symposium in South Dakota, while an investigation of Mesa County elections office was already underway, Knisley said.

One of Peters’ criminal charges stems from the alleged identity theft of a Fruita man – Gerald Wood – who Peters hired as a temporary “consultant,” or administration assistant, which required him to obtain a criminal background check. Wood testified earlier in the trial that he received a badge that allowed access to secure election areas. A few days later he was asked to return the badge to Peters. He was never called in for work.

Peters then used that security clearance to give Hayes, known for his ties to election fraud conspiracies, access to secured election areas.

Knisley testified that it wasn’t until months later that she learned Hayes’ true identify.

One of the mysteries yet to be answered during the trial is why Peters’ friend, right-wing activist Sherronna Bishop, had anything to say in giving orders to Peters’ support staff.

Bishop is a former campaign manager for US Rep. Lauren Boebert. Knisley testified Wednesday that once it was known that the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was investigating the Mesa County elections office, Bishop instructed Knisley to go to the elections department and retrieve a computer before secretary of state officials seized it.

“I said, ‘I couldn’t do that,’” Knisley testified. “She was not my boss and I wasn’t going to take orders from her.”

During this time, Peters instructed Knisley to purchase — with cash — two disposable phones, one for herself, and one for then-back office manager Sandy Brown. Peters didn’t want their communications traced on the county-issued phone, Knisley said.

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters outside the Mesa County courtroom where her criminal trial got underway on July 31, 2024. (Sharon Sullivan for Colorado Newsline)

Both Knisley and Brown testified against Peters this week, as part of a plea deal they accepted surrounding their own charges related to the case. Knisley was ultimately charged with three misdemeanors. Brown served 30 days in jail after being charged with one felony and one misdemeanor for her role.

A former friend of Peters, Knisley told the court that it wouldn’t make a difference whether she was testifying for, or against, Tina Peters.

“I can only tell the truth, and that’s what I’m doing today,” she said.

One defense attorney tried to cast doubt on Knisley’s memory due to an illness, while another defense attorney suggested that Dominion Voting Systems — the company contracted by Mesa County to supply its voting machines — had a financial incentive for decertifying the machines. Mesa County’s election equipment was decertified by the secretary of state after it was discovered the machines had been compromised. Election equipment cannot be used after it’s been decertified. New equipment must be purchased at taxpayers’ expense.

Defense attorney Amy Jones tried to bring up that Peters’ son died in an accident while serving in the military — but the topic was quashed for lack of relevance.

Judge’s frustration

Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett, who is presiding over the case, has several times expressed frustration that proceedings have been delayed, due in part to attorneys’ questions he deemed irrelevant to the case. Barrett has also expressed annoyance at several outbursts coming from the defense side of the room.

“We are way behind. “We keep getting sidetracked with previously decided arguments,” Barrett said.

At one point, Robert Shapiro, first assistant Colorado attorney general for special prosecutions, said that this is a “simple case” and that defense attorneys have turned proceedings into a “circus.”

Brown was present during the trusted build in May 2021. She was asked in court about security protocols in place at the time. She reiterated that badge access was required to enter the tabulation room, and that anyone else must be accompanied by a staff member, and sign in and out. She said taking cell phone photos is not allowed.

Brown testified how she attended a meeting on April 23, 2021, in Peters’ office, which included Peters, Bishop, Knisley, attorney Maurice Emmer, and mathematician Douglas Frank, a national election denier on Lindell’s payroll. Elections manager Brandi Bantz and front office manager Stephanie Wenholz were also asked to attend. Discussion centered on Frank’s theories, such as inflated voter rolls and phantom voters.

Brown testified that when Peters noticed that Bantz was uncomfortable with the discussion taking place in her office, she, Wenholz and Brown were all dismissed from the meeting.

Peters mandated that his staff attend Frank’s seminar expounding on these theories at a presentation that evening at a Grand Junction hotel.

“I thought it was a bunch of malarkey,” Brown said of Frank’s presentation.

Tensions have been palpable surrounding the trial, which has seen increased law enforcement presence. Outside the courtroom in the hallway of the Mesa County Justice Center, Peters’ supporters physically block Peters from being photographed by journalists, while the supporters themselves take multiple photos of reporters in an apparent attempt to intimidate. While many of Peters’ entourage are men, an apparent young girl at one point moved in quickly to block view of Peters on one of the trial days. The girl wore a shirt that said “When tyranny becomes law rebellion becomes duty” — along with a picture of the American flag and an assault weapon.

Among those who have attended some of the trial to support Peters are Arizona politician and election denier Mark Finchem, and Richard Mack, president and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center said has shown “an abject disrespect for the rule of law.”

Peters, 68, faces the possibility of 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The prosecution plans to wrap up its case this week.