At Tina Peters hearing, federal attorney refuses to disclose reason for DOJ’s attempted intervention

By Colleen Slevin, AP

Colorado's chief deputy attorney general urged a federal judge on Tuesday to reject the Trump administration's unprecedented bid to help an imprisoned former county clerk who embraced Trump’s lies that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud.

The U.S. Justice Department in March submitted a federal court filing in support of Tina Peters' fight to be freed from prison while she appeals a state court conviction for allowing Trump supporters to access election equipment.

The federal agency said it was reviewing whether Peters' prosecution was "oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice.”

But Colorado Chief Deputy Attorney General Natalie Hanlon Leh said in Tuesday's hearing in Denver that the government hasn’t presented any evidence of potential wrongdoing. She asked Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak to reject the government's filing or at least strike the line suggesting political motivations.

Varholak noted that under former President Joe Biden, the Justice Department helped investigate Peters and would have access to materials in the case. The judge pressed the government to provide evidence warranting a review.

But Abigail Stout, a Justice Department lawyer in Washington, said she was not authorized to discuss any ongoing review and had no knowledge of any evidence.

The Justice Department also said it wants the court to give Peters' bid for release “prompt and careful consideration.”

While Colorado has argued that it appeared to be a “naked, political attempt” to intimidate the court or Peters' prosecutors, Varholak described the filing as a “tangential issue." He also asked why Colorado challenged it since that brought it more attention.

Leh responded that the state needed to stand up for the integrity of its justice system and did not want to be seen as condoning the Justice Department's involvement by not saying anything.

“This cannot become a new norm,” she said as two prosecutors from Peters’ trial sat behind her.

Varholak said he would rule after determining if he has the authority to decide the issue.

Jurors found Peters guilty in August for using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity. Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.

A state judge sentenced Peters in October to nine years behind bars after rebuking her for being defiant and continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines.

Peters says Judge Matthew Barrett violated her right to free speech by denying her bond while she appeals because of her outspoken questioning of the voting system. She also argued she should be released from prison while she appeals because she is protected from being punished for trying to preserve election records, which she says is a federal duty.

Barrett previously found Peters in contempt of court after District Attorney Dan Rubinstein accused her of recording a court hearing for a person accused of being a coconspirator, which she denied.

That conviction was overturned for lack of evidence by the state appeals court in January.

Peters says Rubinstein, a Republican, later admitted that he didn’t know if Peters was recording the hearing but still used it as a reason to encourage Barrett to sentence her to prison for the voting-system breach. Her lawyers say a review found no evidence of a recording.

Trump has previously been at odds with officials in Democratic-led Colorado over issues including immigration. In March, he demanded the removal of a portrait of himself from the state Capitol because he thought it was unflattering.

His administration's attempt to involve itself in Peters' case is its latest move to reward allies who violated the law on Trump's behalf.

Previously, Trump pardoned more than a thousand people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He nominated an attorney for some of those defendants, Ed Martin, to be acting U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.

The Department of Justice also moved to drop corruption charges against New York’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, saying that they were tainted by “weaponization” and that the administration needed Adams’ cooperation in its immigration enforcement efforts.