Indicted Election Official Accuses Lauren Boebert of ‘Encouraging’ Her to Break Law to Prove Stolen Election Conspiracy

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A Colorado county clerk claims Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R) was “encouraging” her when she allegedly carried out a security breach of voting machines in her district in an attempt to prove the 2020 election was corrupt.

The New York Times published a profile on Tina Peters, the indicted clerk for Mesa County who is running to be the Republican nominee for Colorado’s secretary of state. Peters is a 2020 election-denier charged with multiple felony counts of tampering with election machines and copying sensitive software.

As the Times profile recounts Peters’ foray into public office, it delves into the vortex of conspiracy theories Mesa County witnessed after the 2020 election. While the general election “went off smoothly” for Mesa and former President Donald Trump decisively won the county, Peters was said to have been taken in by conspiracy theories about the national results, and “she connected with a local group, organized by Ms. Boebert’s former campaign manager, that met regularly to swap theories.”

Court records indicate that last year, Peters invited one of the group’s hosts to join her for a “trusted build” of the county election equipment. The Times describes the process as “essentially a software update — performed in a secure location by officials from the secretary of state’s office and employees of Dominion Voting Systems, the voting machine manufacturer — that election skeptics have come to believe erases critical election data. It does not.”

The report continues with an anecdote about Conan Hayes, an ally to former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne had his own involvement in the bizarre attempts to dispute the 2020 election, but he is known to have been affiliated with Hayes, who had this reported escapade with Peters:

Mr. Frank did not accept the offer, but another member of the election denier network did attend, according to court records and interviews. Conan Hayes was a former pro surfer who had worked with Mr. Trump’s legal team as it challenged the 2020 results. In 2021, Mr. Byrne paid him around $200,000 to continue his work for a year, according to Mr. Byrne.

According to an account from Mr. Byrne, and confirmed by Mr. Hayes, he attended the trusted build on May 25, 2021. Mr. Hayes called Mr. Byrne from inside the Mesa County election offices, speaking in a hushed voice and explaining that he’d been invited to make backup copies of machines by a government official who thought that a cover-up was underway, Mr. Byrne said. When the two spoke over FaceTime, Mr. Byrne saw Mr. Hayes was dressed like a computer “nerd” and wearing someone else’s identification tag, Mr. Byrne said.

Ms. Peters had introduced a contractor at the event and identified him as Gerald Wood, a local I.T. consultant, according to court records. The real Mr. Wood, however, told investigators he was not there that day, or two days earlier, when his badge was used to enter a secure area.

In the months that followed, Mesa County’s election equipment passwords appeared on QAnon social media platforms, and Peters participated in the “cyber symposium” held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Peters was subsequently indicted on 10 criminal counts including attempts to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identity theft and first-degree official misconduct.

Peters claims the charges against her are politically-motivated, but they come while she has been trying to generate campaign momentum from her stardom among right-wing conspiracy theorists. The aspiring secretary of state for Colorado spoke to the Times about her charges, and she said that Boebert, her own congresswoman, “encouraged me to go forward with the imaging.”

“A press officer for Ms. Boebert, a Republican, called the claim false.” The Times reported.