This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tina Peters Edition!
It's absolutely bonkers how this saga keeps twisting like a pretzel in a political funhouse mirror. Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted by a jury in a deep-red Trump stronghold for letting an outsider copy sensitive voting machine data during a 2021 software update—actions that led to passwords and images leaking online—all in a quest to hunt for 2020 election fraud that courts have repeatedly found nonexistent.
She caught a well-deserved nine-year sentence in 2024, with the judge blasting her as a "charlatan" peddling "snake oil." Yet now a Colorado appeals court has upheld the conviction but tossed the sentence, ruling the judge improperly dinged her for exercising free speech by continuing to push her wackadoodle beliefs. So she's headed back for resentencing, potentially walking free after time served. At the same time, the whole thing has morphed into a national cause célèbre with Trump pushing pardons (that don't apply to state crimes) and threats of "harsh measures" against Colorado.
Via the Associated Press: