The Colorado judge who sentenced election denier Tina Peters to prison is receiving threats

A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats against staff and the judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years in prison and admonished her for her role in a data breach scheme catalyzed by the lie that the 2020 election was stolen former president Donald Trump.

Staff at the Grand Junction, Colorado, courthouse received multiple threats that were investigated by law enforcement, even though additional security was in place, said spokeswoman Wendy Likes of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.

She did not say how many threats were made or how they were received. She also declined to describe the additional security.

As Will Sightler, chief justice of the 21st Judicial District, said in a statement Friday, the court has received compliments as well as threats following Judge Matthew Barrett’s sentencing of Peters. He didn’t explain in detail what the compliment included.

Peters, a Republican, was convicted Thursday of allowing access to the county’s election system to a man with ties to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell – a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election.

The one-time election denier hero, sentenced in August, failed to apologize for what happened during Thursday’s sentencing hearing, leading Judge Barrett to discipline her during a 15-minute speech that was widely shared online.

He told Peters that she sought power and fame by pursuing false claims of voter fraud, causing immeasurable harm to the integrity of Mesa County’s elections. He said she had no respect for checks and balances in government, the court, law enforcement or her colleagues and that she had betrayed her oath of office, making her a danger to the community.

“This position that she has held has provided her with a pulpit from which to preach these lies,” Barrett said. “You have made every effort to undermine the integrity of our elections and the public’s confidence in our institutions.”

Peters, 68, is not the only person facing legal troubles over the investigation into Trump’s claims of election fraud.

Court documents show three people face charges after five ballot boards were illegally taken from three Michigan counties and taken to a hotel room. Investigators determined that the tabulators had been hacked and “tests” had been performed on the equipment.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington for continuing Trump’s claims about the 2020 election. Other Trump lawyers have been disciplined, had their licenses revoked, were charged or pleaded guilty in connection with efforts to overturn the election. Hundreds of people have been convicted for their roles in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

Before Peters was sentenced, she told Judge Barrett she still believed there was fraud, even though there was no evidence of it.

“Just because you don’t admit the truth and are blind to the truth doesn’t mean the truth isn’t there,” she said. She also alleged that voting machines in Mesa County were replaced to eliminate evidence of fraud.

Cases like Peters’ have raised concerns that rogue election workers, including those sympathetic to lies about the 2020 presidential election, could use their access to election equipment and knowledge gained from breaches to launch an attack from within. This could be intended to gain an advantage for a desired candidate or party, or to introduce systemic problems that would sow further distrust in the election results.

Gillian Feiner, senior adviser to the United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes free and fair elections, said Friday that she hoped Peters’ sentence would be a “significant deterrent to others who continue to engage in these types of offenses.”

– There are others too. She wasn’t alone in this,” Feiner said. “She was supported by a network of bad actors. And not everyone was held accountable. And they paid attention to it.”

Judge Barrett denied Peters’ request for a suspended sentence, saying her crimes were serious enough to require a prison sentence.

Barrett told Peters that she would likely not serve her entire sentence – which is just over eight years in prison followed by six months in county jail – because she may be granted leave due to her behavior in prison. Once sentenced, they will be sentenced to three years of parole.