Warning– video contains an expletive
In a video posted on rumble.com on April 3, 2024, Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, says he paid Tina Peters’ former attorney, Douglas Richards, $1 million to defend her, but was disappointed in Richards’ defense strategy.
Peters fired Richards just as her criminal trial was finally set to start in February, winning her yet another lengthy delay in her trial. It is now scheduled to start on July 31, 2024, after two days of jury selection.
Byrne complains that Richards planned on putting only one witness on the stand in Tina’s trial — Tina — and wanted her to say she took advice to copy Mesa County’s voting machine hard drives from Donald Trump’s attorney Kurt Olsen. Byrne says that Richards hoped “to get the jury to fall in love with this 68 year old grandmother” and engage in jury nullification (or exercise their power to acquit even though they believe the evidence shows Tina is guilty). Kurt Olsen was a Trump attorney at the time of the January 6, 2021 MAGA riot at the Capitol, and also Kari Lake’s attorney after she tried and failed to overturn the results of Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
Attorney Doug Richards of the Richards Carrington law firm in Denver. Former Overstock.com CEO-turned election denier Patrick Byrne says he paid Richards $1 million to fund Tina Peters’ defense in her criminal case before Tina fired Richards last March.(Photo: Richards Carrington Law Firm website)
Byrne said Richards planned an “ineffectual” defense for Tina as part of a “sucker trap” to get her to say things on the witness stand that would lead her to being sentenced to 25 years in prison while helping get Kurt Olsen and Donald Trump indicted, in exchange for being “bought” or “promised a federal judgeship or something.” Byrne challenged Richards to sue him for defamation for saying that. Byrne provided no proof of these claims in the video.
Byrne also says the person that Tina smuggled into the county election office to copy the hard drives, Conan Hayes, is a personal friend of his and describes how Hayes was dressed on the day Tina brought him into the Clerk’s office: “He was in the county offices in Colorado dressed in a plaid shirt with a pocket protector” (Byrne mimes wearing glasses) and says “he had a name tag on that said ‘Billy’ or something.”
The full video is 8 minutes, 15 seconds long and can be seen here.
In the mean time, Tina has been relaxing at a beachfront hotel in Hawaii, as can be seen in yet another video posted on rumble.com on 4/3/24:
Tina on the balcony of a Hawaiian beachfront hotel with “Juan O. Savin,” A.K.A. Wayne Willett (video),a leading figure in QAnon circles, on 4/3/24, while awaiting her criminal trail in July. (Screenshot: rumble.com)
As a thought exercise, I try to imagine being wealthy, surrounded by enabling idiots, desperate for status/recognition, and a compulsive need to be on the “right” side of an issue regardless of facts. But unfortunately the only insight this provides is that conservatism itself has supplanted organized religion to become an even bigger cult of belief that is increasingly draws in con-artists, sycophants, opportunists, parasite “advisers”, and an army of disreputable lawyers. This ironically also seems to reflect a vertical integration to a deeply gullible and self-serving voting base: so one need not even indulge in conspiratorial thinking to see these are fatal flaws to the future of the GOP, esp as its funding streams descend into a circular kleptocracy. Furthermore, there is simply no credible nor effective defense strategy for mentally unhinged people like Tina Peters, Trump, etc etc: all of whom serially break laws based upon only a lizard brain intellect, overwhelming sense of entitlement, and absolutely no understanding of the consequence for their actions. So as much as I despite these dilatory actions to forestall justice, their day(s) in court are inevitable and by the churn of bad-faith lawyers become crystal clear that convictions are all but assured. So if even Hawaii can’t give this pale rider a tan, just imagine how long she’ll last in the hell of confinement (prison) that comes next. I’m no expert on the scriptures either, but don’t they also warn about false profits/prophets?
Thank you for finding this, Anne. And Gene – ignoring those pesky details in her bond is simply emulating the former president.
Our “justice” system enables those with lots of money to skate, while those without money take the rap, do the time, and, in some cases, are executed. The former president, Rudy Giuliani, and our own Pina Teeters are but a few examples of our nation’s shame. Our jails and prisons are disproportionately filled with the poor…just visit Mesa County jail, as I have, if you don’t believe it.
What is Peters doing in Hawaii when she is not supposed to leave the state without notifying the court and getting permission?
If there was ever a thought that people with lots and lots of money are smart, clever, discerning, the trump era has proven this to be false and just plain wrong. In fact if anybody still believes that, they are about as stupid as these rich idiots. A million bucks, down the drain. So much good that might have done. How many other millions has this idiot squandered?