A Colorado county clerk was sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday after spearheading a data breach scheme in the 2020 presidential election.
District Judge Matthew Barrett sparred with former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters during her sentencing for continuing to push discredited claims about rigged voting machines, and said she had not taken her job seriously.
He also said he believed she would do the same things she was found guilty of doing again.
“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett said to her, according to The Associated Press. “You are no hero. You abused your position, and you’re a charlatan.”
A jury had found Peters guilty of four felonies after a lengthy criminal trial. She was cleared of three lesser charges.
Prosecutors alleged Peters stole a county employee’s security badge to help a man associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell gain access to the county’s voter systems to assist Lindell’s false conspiracies about the validity of the 2020 election results.
Lindell at the time and since has promoted false claims that voting machines were manipulated to prevent then-President Trump from winning reelection.
At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.
A onetime hero to election deniers, Peters has been unapologetic about what happened.
Before being sentenced, Peters insisted everything she did to try to unroot what she believed was fraud was for the greater good.
“I’ve never done anything with malice to break the law. I’ve only wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court, according to AP.
Barrett criticized Peters, saying her public statements to supporters had made it clear she cared more about fame than the truth.
“It’s just more lies. No objective person believes them. No — at the end of the day, you cared about the jets, the podcasts and people flying with you,” Barrett said, as reported by AP.
The Associated Press contributed.