Supreme Court declines to halt former Colorado official’s trial on charges related to election security breach

By CNN Newsource

Published July 22, 2024 12:27 pm

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request from a former Colorado county clerk to halt her upcoming trial on charges stemming from her alleged involvement in an apparent security breach at the county’s election offices in 2021.

Justice Neil Gorsuch denied the request from Tina Peters, the former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, and a prominent 2020 election denier, without comment.

The order came from Gorsuch because he oversees matters arising from the appeals court that rejected Peters’ efforts to throw out the criminal case.

The former clerk has pleaded not guilty to 10 state charges, including several felony counts, stemming from the apparent security breach in Mesa County’s elections office in May 2021.

The criminal investigation into the clerk’s office began after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, accused Peters and her deputies of facilitating the breach.

The breach resulted in confidential voting machine logins and forensic images of their hard drives being published in a QAnon-affiliated Telegram channel in early August 2021.

Two lower courts have rejected Peters’ attempt to throw out the criminal case. Peters has argued that she was acting “pursuant to an express federal order to preserve election records” and is therefore immune from prosecution.

Peters’ trial is set to begin on July 29.