Court investigating threats after Colorado judge sentenced Tina ...

Court administrators are reviewing threats they received after a district court judge in Grand Junction ordered Tina Peters spend nine years behind bars for her role in a 2021 breach of her own county’s election system.

Twenty-first Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett handed down the sentence Thursday after he said Peter had found a way to profit off lies and was convinced she would continue if she remained out of prison.

“We are receiving threats and compliments regarding Judge Barrett’s sentencing of Tina Peters,” Will Sightler, court executive for the 21st Judicial District said in a statement Friday afternoon. 

“We are currently reviewing and taking appropriate action as necessary.” 

Court administrators declined to provide additional details on the threats. The court will be closed Monday for Cabrini Day, a state-recognized holiday.

A former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, Peters, 68, was convicted in August of three counts of attempting to influence a public official; conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation; official misconduct; violation of duty; and failure to comply with an order of the Secretary of State.

“Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious,” Barrett said to Peters during the sentencing. “I am convinced you would do it all over again. You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen.”

She did not testify during her trial, but pleaded with the judge Thursday and begged for mercy.

“Your honor, I don’t deserve to go to prison where other people have committed heinous crimes,” she said. “I am not a criminal. I have lived my life with faith and honesty.”

Information stolen from Mesa County’s voting system was never used to prove election fraud, but it was used in the national election-conspiracy conversation, touted as evidence that Dominion Voting Systems was monkeying with election results. 

Along the way, Peters became a cause celebre among election conspiracy theorists — locally and across the nation. She became known as “Hero Tina” and “Clerk Peters,” labels that her social media followers still use. A documentary called “Selection Code” that focused on her election breach was released in 2022.  

She appeared at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump. She spoke at conferences with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and other conspiracy theorists. She was a regular guest on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast before he was sentenced to prison for ignoring a congressional subpoena. She went on numerous right-wing podcasts asking for money for her defense — pleas that continued throughout her trial and sentencing. 

Testimony in her trial showed that the tentacles of her crime reached into the top echelons and inner circles of the election-deniers close to Trump — former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Trump National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and Overstock.com founder and CEO Patrick Byrne.

This is a developing news story that will be updated.