But an attorney for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters asked the judge to vacate the warrant because she said she was unaware of the order before traveling to a conference in Las Vegas. The judge earlier revoked bond and issued the warrant for Peters, who is charged with tampering with election equipment, after District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said in documents that he learned he traveled to Nevada for a conference after having a letter notarized in Las Vegas. on Tuesday. The letter, sent to Democratic Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, called for a recount in her failed primary for the GOP nomination in the undersecretary of state race. Rubinstein, a Republican, has previously said he would not object to Peters traveling outside of Colorado during her campaign for secretary of state. But the election was held on June 28, and court documents said the letter was validated on July 12. Judge Matthew Barrett on Monday ordered that Peters not travel until the post-election approval process for her trip is resolved. In a court filing Thursday, Peters’ attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said he didn’t learn about the order in time to warn Peters about it before she left for Las Vegas earlier this week. She did not try to hide her appearance at the conference, which was broadcast live, she said. In addition, Steinberg said Peters is still running for secretary of state, noting that the election results have not yet been certified. Peters has repeated former President Donald Trump’s false theories about the 2020 election. She and her chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, are facing criminal charges for allegedly allowing a hard drive to be copied during a campaign equipment update in May 2021. A former employee in her office, Sandra Brown, was arrested this week and is now also accused of being part of the scheme. Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public official, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, dereliction of duty and failure to comply with the secretary of state. Both Peters and Knisley have denied wrongdoing, with Peters calling the charges politically motivated. Brown, the former director of elections in Peter’s office, was charged Thursday with attempting to influence a public official, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. According to a court document, Knisley worked to get a security badge for a man Peters said she was hiring at the clerk’s office. Peters then used it to allow another, unauthorized person in the room to make a copy of the voting equipment’s hard drive, he said. Brown was present when the copy was made and conspired to misrepresent who the user of the mark was, it said. Attempts to reach Brown for comment were unsuccessful through phone numbers that may be associated with her. Court records do not list an attorney who could speak on her behalf. Mesa County, in western Colorado, is largely rural and heavily Republican. Trump won it in the 2020 presidential election with nearly 63% of the vote. President Joe Biden won Colorado overall with 55.4% of the state’s vote.
