{"id":41331,"date":"2022-04-05T18:31:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T00:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mypillow-ceo-says-he-gave-as-much-as-800000-to-mesa-county-clerk-tina-peters-legal-defense-fund\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T00:31:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T00:31:12","slug":"mypillow-ceo-says-he-gave-as-much-as-800000-to-mesa-county-clerk-tina-peters-legal-defense-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mypillow-ceo-says-he-gave-as-much-as-800000-to-mesa-county-clerk-tina-peters-legal-defense-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"MyPillow CEO says he gave as much as $800,000 to Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters\u2019 legal defense fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"MyPillow
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has helped fund the work of various 2020 election deniers, headlined an \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d at noon Tuesday at the state Capitol. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the nation\u2019s highest profile peddlers of baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, said Tuesday that he\u2019s donated as much as $800,000 to the legal defense fund of embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably put in three, four or five, maybe $800,000, of my own money,\u201d Lindell told reporters outside the Colorado Capitol.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Independent Ethics Commission is investigating the legal defense fund after a complaint was filed about the lack of transparency around who is giving the fund money. Peters has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Peters, a Republican under indictment in a security breach of her county\u2019s election system, is also being investigated by the commission over allegations that she accepted a plane ride from Lindell in order to attend an election security symposium he hosted in August.<\/p>\n

Lindell said Tuesday that Peters \u201cprobably\u201d traveled on his private jet to the symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came to the cyber symposium with the group from Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cI picked people up \u2013 I invited all 50 states, all 50 states were represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindell then called a Colorado Sun reporter, and his questions, \u201cstupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother stupid question by a stupid journalist,\u201d Lindell said.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Constitution prohibits elected officials from accepting a gift greater than $65, including for travel.<\/p>\n

Lindell was in Colorado on Tuesday to speak at an \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d at the Colorado Capitol with Peters and other Colorado Republicans, including state Reps. Dave Williams, Ron Hanks, Richard Holtorf and Mark Baisley. Williams is running to represent the 5th Congressional District and Hanks is running for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators at the \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d on Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Mesa County grand jury indicted Peters in March on 10 felony and misdemeanor counts, including these charges: attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, identity theft and first-degree official misconduct.<\/p>\n

Peters is running to be Colorado\u2019s secretary of state.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the crowd from the Capitol\u2019s west steps Tuesday, Peters compared the other Republican candidates running for secretary of state to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire investor George Soros, a Democratic donor who frequently draws Republican ire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went, \u2018I got to stand up,\u2019\u201d Peters said, describing her decision to run. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m running into the fire for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters also took aim at an election-security bill being debated in the Legislature, arguing it would put too much \u201cpower into the hands of one person, and that\u2019s the secretary of state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot let that person \u2013 those people \u2013 get in,\u201d she said. The crowd chanted \u201clock her up\u201d as she spoke, a seeming reference to current Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat. Some waved flags or held signs with slogans like \u201cTRUMP WON SAVE AMERICA\u201d and \u201cRECALL Polis & Griswold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters attends the \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d on Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report For America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The election-security measure, Senate Bill 153, would make it a felony to tamper with voting equipment or to publish confidential voting system information. It would also bar those convicted of certain offenses, including attempting to overthrow the government, from serving as an election official.<\/p>\n

The bill was inspired by Peters\u2019 actions last year and is supported by the bipartisan Colorado County Clerks Association, members of which on Sunday held a news conference to denounce Tuesday\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers who spoke at the rally on Tuesday said they supported Peters, who posed for selfies and signed items of clothing for attendees. A few hundred people attended the event.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators at the \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d on Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rep. Dave Williams, a Republican from El Paso County, apologized to the crowd for being late, saying he had been \u201ctrying to fight Dominion Voting Systems,\u201d and accused \u201cgodless Democrats\u201d of trying to \u201csteal them some elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid to say it: RINO Republicans have caused us to have this mess that we have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

RINO is an acronym for Republicans in name only.<\/p>\n

Williams likened Peters to a political prisoner and concluded his remarks by saying \u201cLet\u2019s go Brandon,\u201d coded language used to insult President Joe Biden with vulgarity.<\/p>\n

Lindell said that just before speaking at the rally he was served with a lawsuit filed by Eric Coomer, a former executive at Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which has been baselessly accused of perpetrating fraud in 2020. Coomer, who has been the central Dominion employee attacked by election deniers, has filed a number of defamation lawsuits, including against conservative media outlets and figures.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lindell also said Peters \u2018probably\u2019 traveled on his private jet to his cyber symposium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,394,233,28,826,774,265,1126],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-political-campaigns","tag-political-candidates","tag-politics","tag-politics-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41331"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}