Belinda Knisley, Mesa County’s former deputy administrator, testified Wednesday that her former boss, then-county clerk Tina Peters, repeatedly told her, “I’m going to go to jail for this,” in connection with a security breach at the election office she managed in 2021.
Peters apparently believed she was going to be arrested after learning that images of the computer system she helped obtain had been posted online, according to Knisley’s testimony. The computer and password photos were allegedly taken during a May 2021 Mesa County election software update, also known as a “trusted build.” In August 2021, Peters learned the images had been made public when she attended a “cyber symposium” in South Dakota organized by election conspiracy theorist and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.
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At first, Knisley didn’t believe her friend Peters had done anything wrong. But that changed after Knisley learned more details about unusual events at the polls office in 2021, she said. Knisley was charged with lesser crimes for her involvement in Peters’ plot.
“I believe she got into trouble through subsequent actions and lies,” Knisley told jurors.
In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury indicted Peters, a Republican, on three counts of attempted influence of a public official, three counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one count of identity theft. She is also charged with three misdemeanors, namely abuse of office, election violations and failure to comply with the regulations of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office – acts she allegedly committed while trying to prove that Mesa County’s ballot counting machines were faulty.
“I can only tell the truth”
“I’m fucked,” Peters told Knisley after learning that the pictures she took had been posted on a conspiracy website, Knisley testified.
“I had no idea what she was talking about,” Knisley said.
Previous testimony revealed that the images were saved on a hard drive and sent by mail to Conan Hayes, a former professional surfer in California who Peters is said to have secretly hired as a “consultant.”
Knisley testified that during the confidential build, Peters videotaped passwords and other confidential information belonging to the Secretary of State and then sent that information to a man she now knows was Hayes. Hayes was also alleged to have been present during the confidential build. Peters told Knisley that she and Hayes took photographs during the confidential build to secure recordings she believed the Secretary of State would delete.
The passwords were made public at the time of the South Dakota symposium, while an investigation by the Mesa County elections office was already underway, Knisley said.
One of the charges against Peters stems from the alleged identity theft of a Fruita man – Gerald Wood – whom Peters hired as a temporary “consultant” or administrative assistant, for which he had to pass a criminal background check. Wood testified earlier in the trial that he was given an ID card that allowed him access to secure voting areas. A few days later, he was asked to return the ID card to Peters. He was never called to work.
Peters then used this security clearance to give Hayes, who was known for his ties to voter fraud conspiracies, access to secure voting areas.
Knisley testified that she did not learn Hayes’ true identity until months later.
One of the mysteries that remains to be solved during the trial is why Peters’ girlfriend, right-wing activist Sherronna Bishop, had any say in giving instructions to Peters’ support staff at all.
Bishop is a former campaign manager for U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert. Knisley testified Wednesday that when it was announced that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was investigating the Mesa County elections office, Bishop instructed Knisley to go to the elections office and retrieve a computer before it was confiscated by Secretary of State officials.
“I said, ‘I can’t do that,'” Knisley testified. “She wasn’t my boss and I didn’t want to take orders from her.”
During that time, Peters directed Knisley to use cash to purchase two disposable cell phones, one for herself and one for then-back office manager Sandy Brown. Peters did not want her conversations on the county-issued cell phone to be tracked, Knisley said.
Both Knisley and Brown testified against Peters this week as part of a plea agreement they accepted in connection with their own charges related to the case. Knisley was ultimately charged with three misdemeanors. Brown served 30 days in jail after being charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for her role.
Knisley, a former girlfriend of Peters, told the court that it made no difference whether she testified for or against Tina Peters.
“I can only tell the truth, and that is what I am doing today,” she said.
One defense attorney tried to cast doubt on Knisley’s memory due to illness, while another defense attorney claimed that Dominion Voting Systems — the company Mesa County contracted to supply the voting machines — had a financial incentive to invalidate the machines. Mesa County’s voting machines were invalidated by the Secretary of State after it was determined that the machines had been tampered with. Voting machines cannot be used after they have been invalidated. New machines must be purchased at taxpayer expense.
Defense attorney Amy Jones attempted to raise the issue that Peters’ son had died in an accident while serving in the military, but the issue was dismissed as being irrelevant.
Frustration among the judge
Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett, who is presiding over the case, has repeatedly expressed frustration that the proceedings have been delayed, in part because of questions from attorneys that he deemed irrelevant to the case. Barrett has also expressed annoyance at several outbursts of anger from the defense side.
“We are way behind. We are constantly distracted by arguments that have already been decided,” Barrett said.
Robert Shapiro, Colorado’s first assistant attorney general for special prosecutions, once said this was a “simple case” and that defense attorneys had turned the proceedings into a “circus.”
Brown was present during the Trusted Build in May 2021. She was questioned in court about the security protocols in place at the time. She reiterated that identification was required to enter the counting room and that everyone else had to be accompanied by a staff member and sign in when checking in and out. She said taking cellphone photos was not permitted.
Brown testified that she attended a meeting in Peters’ office on April 23, 2021, that included Peters, Bishop, Knisley, attorney Maurice Emmer and mathematician Douglas Frank, a national election denier on Lindell’s payroll. Elections director Brandi Bantz and front office manager Stephanie Wenholz were also asked to attend. The discussion centered on Frank’s theories, such as inflated voter rolls and phantom voters.
Brown testified that when Peters noticed Bantz was uncomfortable with the discussion in her office, she, Wenholz and Brown were all dismissed from the meeting.
Peters ordered her staff to attend Frank’s seminar, where these theories would be explained in a presentation that same evening at a hotel in Grand Junction.
“I thought it was a bunch of nonsense,” Brown said of Frank’s presentation.
Tensions were palpable around the trial, which has seen an increased police presence. Outside the courtroom in the hallway of the Mesa County Justice Center, Peters’ supporters physically block journalists from photographing him, while the supporters themselves take several photos of reporters in an apparent attempt to intimidate him. Although many of Peters’ entourage are men, on one of the days of the trial, an apparently young girl rushed to block Peters’ view. The girl wore a T-shirt that read “When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty” – along with an image of the American flag and an assault weapon.
Among those who attended some of the trial days in support of Peters are Arizona politician and voter objector Mark Finchem, and Richard Mack, president and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center says has shown “an abject disregard for the rule of law.”
If convicted on all counts, 68-year-old Peters faces a prison sentence of 20 years.
Prosecutors plan to close their case this week.
