Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters this week sued state and federal officers — together with U.S. Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland — in search of to cease any legal investigation and prosecution of her associated to her conduct within the aftermath of the 2020 election.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court docket in Denver on Monday, alleges authorities officers violated her constitutional rights via their investigations into her alleged misconduct as an election official.
The lawsuit comes months earlier than Peters is scheduled to face trial in Mesa County. She faces seven felony prices for allegedly permitting a replica of a tough drive to be made throughout an replace of election gear in 2021 in the hunt for proof of the false conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump.
The costs towards her embrace a number of counts of making an attempt to affect a public servant and one depend of legal impersonation, amongst others.
Peters has pleaded not responsible and has contended the fees are politically motivated.
Within the new lawsuit, Peters sued Garland, twenty first Judicial District Legal professional Daniel Rubinstein and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The lawsuit alleges Peters acted to guard election data inside the county’s laptop voting programs from being prematurely erased by a software program improve.
Based on the lawsuit, Griswold issued a directive requiring county election officers to put in this improve, however her workers knew it might prematurely erase a minimum of among the present election data on the server. Colorado regulation requires election officers to protect election data for a minimum of 25 months after the election, based on the lawsuit.
Peters organized for impartial consultants to make bit-by-bit forensic pictures of the drive earlier than and after the improve occurred. Then, she gave the photographs to laptop consultants, who, the lawsuit alleges, decided that the improve had overwritten the election data.
All actions Peters undertook have been constitutional, the lawsuit says, and are protected by the First and 14th amendments, along with federal and native legal guidelines.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that the response from state and federal officers — together with petitioning Peters to step down from her place and an executed search-and-seizure warrant on her residence that concerned pointless harm to non-public property — was harassing and extreme.
Peters was changed as county clerk and recorder in 2021 after an investigation decided she had breached safety protocol and allowed unauthorized entry to the county’s digital election data.
She prevented jail time in April for a misdemeanor obstruction conviction in one other case.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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