Category: Ethics

Tina Peters is lying to audience after audience about her divorce: “They took away my husband…these people are criminals.”

Tina Peters repeatedly tells a sad story in interviews and at conferences that she would have been married to her husband for 36 years by now if only Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and the FBI hadn’t gone into a Grand Junction nursing home and forced her husband Tom, who she says has “advanced dementia,” to sign divorce papers dissolving their marriage. She tells this story sometimes angrily, and sometimes tearfully, dabbing at her eyes, sniffling and sounding like she’s about to cry. She says the story is evidence of a coordinated plot being carried out against her by a cabal of high-level Democrats who are intentionally harassing her and trying to silence her because of what she’s supposedly revealed about election fraud here in Mesa County. Tina’s “cabal” consists of D.A. Rubinstein, his “criminal” investigators, the FBI, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, wealthy financier George Soros and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Republicans waking up to the reality of Tina Peters’ and Sherronna Bishop’s lying, attention-seeking and predatory behavior

Matt Crane, Executive Director of the CO County Clerks Association called Tina Peters “a liar and a predator” who is “coming after their money.” (Photo: Election Official Legal Defense Network)

It’s been a rough few days for indicted Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.

First her $255,000+ recount showed again that she lost her race for secretary of state by the same 14% margin she lost by in the original election tally.

Then Mesa County Republican Party Chair Kevin McCarney — one of her longest, staunchest defenders — finally realized Tina is completely off the rails and publicly called on her to resign from her office.

McCarney told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Tina is acting “like a petulant child crying about not getting her way,” and said she’s “dragging down the party.” He said it takes a lot to get on his bad side, but Tina managed to do it.

Tina Peters’ next big drama to keep the grift going

Tina Peters press release finding fault with the El Paso County recount

Get ready. The next Tina Peters drama is already happening.

Tina is trying hard to set the scene for a hand recount by claiming there is tremendous fault in the El Paso County recount effort, which has barely just begun.

Tina issued a press release yesterday saying the El Paso County Logic and Accuracy test (a precursor to the recount) was an “absolute disaster.”

Tina Peters on the judge in her criminal case: “This is a dirty, dirty player”

NOTE: YouTube removed this video of Tina Peters’ appearance on Steve Bannon’s show because in it, Peters persistently tells a raft of blatant lies about election fraud in Colorado. I am trying to explain to YouTube that the video is being used for purposes of commentary and criticism, and this has worked for YouTube’s removal of other video clips of Tina’s talks, but so far they have not agreed to restore this particular one. Fortunately I transcribed some passages of her talking in this video here:

In the video she made in Pitkin County the night she bonded out of jail in Aspen on 7/22, Republican Tina Peters called Mesa County Court Judge Matthew Barrett, the judge overseeing her criminal case, “partisan” and “malicious,” and claimed “his goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.” She further accused Judge Barrett of “legislating from the bench,” and urged her followers to “file a lot of ethics complaints” against him.

Just two days later, on 7/25, while appearing on Steve Bannon’s internet talk show “War Room,” in a segment titled “Deep Dive of a Few Bad Men,” Peters continued assailing Judge Barrett:

In new video, Tina Peters assails Judge Matthew Barrett, who oversees her criminal case, calling him “malicious,” “partisan” and saying his “goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.”


In her latest unhinged Facebook video made around 9:30 p.m. last night (Thursday, July 21) after turning herself in at the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department Tina Peters calls Mesa County Court Judge Matthew Barrett, the judge in her criminal case, “partisan” and “malicious,” and says “his goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.” She accuses him of “legislating from the bench.”

Barrett was the judge who kept her out of jail last week after her unauthorized trip to speak in Las Vegas on July 12. She had traveled to Nevada without Court permission, and the judge had also issued a “no travel” order for her the same day. In spite of this, the judge was lenient with her and gave her the benefit of the doubt that it could have been her attorney’s fault for not informing her of the no-travel order.

The next Jan 6th House Select Committee Hearing is Thursday, July 21 at 6:00 p.m. local time

The next hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is this Thursday, July 21 in prime time starting at 6:00 p.m. local time. The hearing will be broadcast on all the major TV networks ABC, CBS and NBC, and PBS. It will also be live on CSPAN (cable) and CNN will stream it live at CNN.com without requiring a cable login. It can also be viewed live on the Select Committee’s YouTube Channel. Many media outlets will also stream the hearing on their Facebook pages. The first hearing, also held in prime time, had 20 million viewers.

This hearing will focus on what former President Trump was doing, and not doing, minute by minute during the 187 minutes after Trump-supporting rioters began attacking the Capitol and before he issued he a public response. Two former Trump White House officials, Trump deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, both of whom were in the White House on the day of the attack and both of whom resigned that day, will testify.

January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson has tested positive for Covid and will miss the next hearing. Committee members Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) are expected to take central roles chairing the proceedings.

 

Rep. Boebert: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk”


Speaking to an audience at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt on June 26, 2022 — two days before the primary election — House Rep. Lauren Boebert called for America to become a theocracy, a system of government in which the church directs the government.

Strutting back and forth across the stage like a televangelist, Boebert told the audience,

“The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk. That’s not the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say.”

New Supreme Court Justices lied under oath to get on the Supreme Court, then changed U.S. law to force people, including child rape victims, to carry pregnancies to term. Justice Thomas indicates Court may go after the right to buy & use contraception next.


Three of the new, Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices intentionally misled the Senate and the public during their confirmation hearings about their intent to overturn Roe V. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Among the three judges who were dishonest was Coloradan Neil Gorsuch.

The Court’s ruling ended the 50 year-old established constitutional right of American women to determine their own futures with regard to child rearing, and gives states the ability to enact laws that force women to remain pregnant against their will. The ruling effectively imposes extremist right wing Christian religious beliefs upon half the country, and instantly creates two classes of people: one class fortunate enough to live in states that protect people’s right to make decisions about their own pregnancies and child-rearing, and a second class in the other states with no such protections, with laws in place that force females to carry all pregnancies to term, no matter a woman’s age, health, emotional or economic circumstances, how many children she already has, or whether she wants to be pregnant or not.

The Mesa County GOP needs to apologize for creating, aiding and abetting the Tina Peters debacle

Mesa County GOP Chair Kevin McCarney defends Tina Peters at a “Stand for the Constitution” meeting at Appleton Christian Church in Grand Junction in September, 2021. Tina Peters’ wild, egregious election-lie fiasco has embarrassed Mesa County on a national scale. 

It was clear back in 2018 when she was elected that Tina Peters was unqualified to be Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. She had had zero experience in government or in the Clerk’s office, had never worked in public administration or worked on an election in any capacity.

At the time, the qualifications between the two candidates for County Clerk couldn’t have been more stark:

Trump aides, appointees & family all testify that Trump kept pushing the lie of widespread election fraud to the public even after they told him no proof of fraud exists

In this video clip from a House Jan 6 Select Committee public hearing posted to the public on June 14, William Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, Trump’s daughter and White House Advisor Ivanka Trump, multiple Trump campaign aides and attorneys all testify that they informed Trump in no uncertain terms that no evidence of widespread election fraud existed and his claims about it were false, and in spite of this, Trump continued to push the lie out to the public that widespread election fraud had cost him the election.

Trump & his associates have repeatedly fleeced those who trusted him most. Tina Peters is following his lead.

Tina Peters appears on Steve Bannon’s Internet TV show, “War Room,” Dec. 31, 2021

First, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon raised hundreds of millions of dollars from Trump supporters using his private fundraising campaign, “We Build the Wall,” that promised to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Bannon promised gullible MAGA-heads that “100% of the funds raised …[would] be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.” But Bannon and his associates diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the campaign to pay their own personal expenses and credit card debt, buy expensive luxury items like jewelry, home renovations, high-end SUVs, plastic surgery and golf carts. Law enforcement agents arrested Bannon in August of 2020 on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud while he was off the coast of Connecticut, lounging on a 150-foot long super-yacht owned by a Chinese billionaire.

Trump pardoned Bannon of these crimes before leaving office in 2021, which is why Bannon was never prosecuted for them.

Tina Peters losing support locally


Support for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters appears to be waning among her “base” in Mesa County as people discover Peters is willing to lie and sacrifice other people to further her own ends.

The Daily Sentinel reported today that enthusiasm for Peters among members of the far-right group Stand for the Constitution (SFTC) appears to be waning. The group, previously a strong supporter of Peters, invited Peters’ opponent for Secretary of State, Mike O’Donnell, to speak at their most recent meeting. The meeting was sponsored in part by Andrea Barber, the sister-in-law of Gerald Wood, whose identity Tina Peters stole in order to smuggle a third person into the Elections Department to copy voting machine hard drives.

Former G.J. City Council candidate Mark McAllister speaks in support of Tina Peters at an August, 2021 rally organized by Stand for the Constitution in support of Tina Peters, while a supporter holds a sign that says “I Trust Tina Peters.” (Photo: YouTube)

Peters’ actions swept up Fruita resident Gerald Wood into the criminal investigation of Peters’ election tampering, forcing Wood to have to prove to authorities he was not present at the time Peters had the hard drives copied.

Oklahoma is just the beginning of what life will be like under Republican rule

In late May 2022, Oklahoma once again passed the nation’s worst abortion ban, making it the first state to effectively end women’s right to have an abortion, and making this article, that I first published on May 20, 2019, even more relevant.

Oklahoma Republicans just passed a mind-blowingly strict law that makes abortion illegal in virtually every circumstance, effectively terminating the right of women in the state to control their own bodies and reproductive fate.

Oklahoma wasn’t alone in this, either. Other Republican-dominated states are also enacting extremely strict laws that effectively make abortion illegal, with some banning the procedure as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Republicans base these laws on their belief that a fetus is a fully legal person entitled to all the rights and privileges that all legal American citizens enjoy.

But if actually put into effect, what do these beliefs really portend for life in America?

Reports: Boebert bailed on passengers & covered up off-road drunk driving accident 2 weeks before 2020 primary

Lauren Boebert in December, 2019

News outlets including the Daily Mail and the Daily Beast are confirming a story first broken by FireBoebert.com that CD-3 House Rep. Lauren Boebert covered up a serious off-road drunken driving accident she caused just weeks before the 2020 primary election, that could have tanked her run for House Representative.

According to reports and phone recordings, several sources including Boebert’s family members have confirmed that on Mother’s Day, 2020, Boebert was driving an off-road vehicle near Moab with her former sister in law, Tori Hooper, and Boebert’s son and dog, when Boebert lost control of the vehicle. Hooper reports Boebert “bailed” out of the vehicle as it was careening towards a cliff, leaving the passengers alone in the vehicle. Hooper struggled to re-take control of the vehicle, but it crashed into a rock causing serious injuries to her face and chest. Hooper had to be evacuated by helicopter. The accident was not called in to 911.

State of CO investigating Boebert’s 2020 mileage reimbursements & payment of tax liens on Shooters Grill

Lauren Boebert, shown at upper left in a 2019 Facebook post, holding the same flag flown by right wing extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021

The New York Times is reporting that the State of Colorado will investigate allegations of campaign finance fraud by CO House Rep. Lauren Boebert involving her excessive 2020 mileage reimbursements and subsequent payoff of multiple outstanding tax liens on her restaurant, Shooters Grill, in Rifle, CO.

In 2020, then-candidate Rep. Boebert reimbursed herself from her campaign fund for over $30,000 worth of mileage that she claimed to have traveled between April and November of 2020, during the pandemic, and then appeared to have used the funds to pay off tax liens against her Rifle, CO restaurant. The number of miles she claims to have driven was enough to circumnavigate the globe 1.5 times.

Einstein Bagels is rounding up change to support a group that is facing multiple sexual assault and EEOC claims

Einstein Bagels asks people to round up their purchase to the next dollar to donate to a Christian missionary youth group that has been charged with widespread sexual assault, misconduct and harassment.

Einstein Bagels in Grand Junction is asking customers to round up their change to support Young Life, an evangelical Christian missionary youth group that is currently facing a slew of sexual misconduct lawsuits by former club participants across the country and at least four Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints for racial discrimination, improper termination and other sordid allegations.

Young Life came under federal investigation in 2021 after students, members and volunteers across the country reported they had experienced unwanted sexual advances and solicitations, racially discriminatory comments and treatment, and verbal harassment consisting of sexual innuendoes, comments, jokes, inappropriate texts and social media messages, grooming, inappropriate physical touching, sexual assault, racially discriminatory treatment and retaliation against volunteers who reported such events.

Ethics Commission rules third complaint against Tina Peters is valid

Tina Peters’ mugshot for her arrest on 3/9/2022, charged with 8 felonies and 3 misdemeanors related to election tampering

At their meeting today, May 17, the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) unanimously ruled the third ethics complaint they received about Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is non-frivolous. The vote means they will proceed to act on it.

The third complaint, assigned Complaint #22-22, is about Peters’ acceptance of a purported $800,000 donation from fellow election denier Mike Lindell, CEO of the My Pillow Company, in violation of Article 29 of Colorado’s Constitution, which limits the value of any gifts an elected official can accept to $65.

New ethics complaint against Tina Peters will be heard by CO Independent Ethics Commission tomorrow

A third ethics complaint (pdf) was filed against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on May 9, 2022.

This one is about her failure to report contributions to her legal defense fund, in particular the $800,000 donation that My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said he made to Peters’ fund. Lindell disclosed the donation at an election denier event at the state Capitol April 5.  9News in Denver described it as the single biggest contribution ever made to any elected official in Colorado history. The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) designated the latest complaint as Complaint No. 22-22. It is the third ethics complaint filed against Peters since she became a high-profile election denier.