Colorado clerk who became hero to election conspiracists wanted to preserve data, lawyer says

DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, a hero to election conspiracy theorists who is accused of orchestrating a breach of election security equipment, was trying to prevent voting information from being erased, her lawyer said at the start of her trial Wednesday.

Under the laws in place in 2021, when Peters allowed a man who prosecutors say was working with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to make a copy of a Dominion Voting Systems computer’s hard drive, she was allowed to hire a “consultant” to make such a copy, defense attorney Amy Jones said during opening statements.

“She believed she needed to save that data,” said Jones, who did not deny that a copy was made.

But prosecutor Robert Shapiro portrayed the man as a “cyber mercenary” who Peters brought in without conducting a background check and committed identity theft by passing him off as another person who had obtained clearance to work for her office. He said Peters contacted the man, who has not been charged, after she met with Douglas Frank, another person working with Lindell, one of the nation’s most prominent election conspiracy theorists. Frank, an Ohio math teacher, had been traveling around the country looking for evidence of voter fraud when he met with Peters and she hatched the plan, he said.

Despite that, Shapiro told jurors the case against Peters was not about election fraud or conspiracy theories.

“It’s a simple case of deceit and fraud,” he said.

Colorado state election officials became aware of the alleged security breach in Mesa County a few months later when a photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social media and a conservative website after Peters joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” and promised to reveal proof of election rigging.

Peters, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, has argued she had a duty to preserve the results of the election before the voting system was upgraded and that she should not be prosecuted for carrying out her job.

The hard drive copied included proprietary software developed by Dominion Voting Systems that is used by election offices around the country. The Colorado-based company has been the subject of conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. It filed several defamation lawsuits as a result, settling a case against Fox News for $787 million last year.

Experts have described the unauthorized release as serious, saying it provided a potential “practice environment” that would allow anyone to probe for vulnerabilities that could be exploited during a future election.

The incident is one of a handful of suspected security breaches that occurred in the aftermath of the 2020 election amid false claims by Trump that voting systems were rigged against him.

Trump ally Sidney Powell pleaded guilty last year to reduced charges in a case in Georgia. Prosecutors alleged she conspired with others to access election equipment without authorization in Coffee County and hired a computer forensics firm to copy software and data from voting machines and computers.

Election security experts and computer scientists say an effort to access voting system software in several states and provide it to Trump allies poses “serious threats” ahead of this year’s presidential contest.

It is unknown if Peters — who has repeated false accusations that the 2020 presidential election in which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden was a “planned fraud on a grand scale" — will testify during the nearly two-week trial in the city of Grand Junction.

But Shapiro said two of her closest colleagues would testify take the stand and testify against her.

Peters’ chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, and the aide who was with her when the first computer image was taken, former elections manager Sandra Brown, both pleaded guilty under deals which require them to testify against Peters.

Judge Matthew Barrett has barred Peters from portraying herself as whistleblower during the trial and also ruled the defense cannot try to make the case about election integrity or Dominion, The Daily Sentinel reported.

The trial began after several delays, Peters' failed bid to become Colorado’s top elections official and her decision to change attorneys on the eve of a trial date in February.

The jury was seated Wednesday after being questioned by lawyers earlier in the day in the solidly Republican county near the Utah border, which Donald Trump won in the 2020 presidential election with nearly 63% of the vote.

Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.

Prosecutors allege a second image of the elections computer was taken after it was upgraded. The next day, they say Peters mailed a package to the man who had taken the first image but who left before the second one could be completed. He has not been charged.

Peters' case was the first instance amid the 2020 conspiracy theories in which a local election official was charged with a suspected security breach of voting systems. It heightened concerns nationally for the potential of insider threats, in which rogue election workers sympathetic to lies about the 2020 election might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within.

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This story has been updated to correct the headline to show that Peters’ lawyer said she did want to preserve the data.

Christina Almeida Cassidy contributed to this report from Atlanta.