Left: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the East Room at the White House Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP). Right: Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters looks on during sentencing for her election interference case at the Mesa County District Court Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Grand Junction, Colo. (Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP).
A former county clerk, who was sentenced to nearly ten years in prison for promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, claims she was placed in solitary confinement in Colorado after voicing concerns about her treatment by prison staff.
Tina Peters, as previously covered by Law&Crime, was found guilty in August 2024 of engaging in a security breach related to unauthorized access to voting equipment during her tenure as a clerk in Mesa County.
According to prosecutors, Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley, were involved in tampering with election equipment and official misconduct by permitting an unauthorized individual to copy the hard drives of voting machines in 2021. This occurred both before and after a “trusted build” systems upgrade in May 2021.
Peters and Knisley consistently alleged that President Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election, suggesting that the voting machines were manipulated to favor Joe Biden.
In October 2024, following an extensive hearing where Peters remained defiant and upheld her beliefs, she was sentenced to nine years in state prison for her felony activities.
Currently, Peters’ attorney reports that her health is “deteriorating markedly,” particularly since being placed in solitary confinement, as stated in a report by KDVR, a local Fox affiliate.
Peters filed a grievance against a corrections officer after she asked the officer not to discuss her case during a GED class, according to court documents cited by KDVR. According to that report, another inmate screamed at Peters when she asked for her case not to be discussed, and that inmate allegedly followed Peters to her unit while yelling at her.
A handwritten document Peters gave to her attorney reportedly cites the written grievance against the officer as the key factor that led to her solitary confinement.
Peters’ lawyer also says that her clients other ailments include a cough, constant pain in her neck, back and hips, sleep deprivation, cognitive decline, and a possible recurrence of lung cancer, according to KDVR. She has requested Peters be released immediately.
The Trump administration has taken an interest in Peters’ incarceration in what prosecutors in Colorado have called a “wholly inappropriate” and “grotesque” attempt to “weaponize the rule of law.”
Earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Prisons asked Colorado officials to transfer Peters into federal custody.
