{"id":43616,"date":"2021-11-22T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T03:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-appears-with-militia-supporters-in-video-call-that-included-endorsement-of-violence\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T03:08:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T03:08:00","slug":"tina-peters-appears-with-militia-supporters-in-video-call-that-included-endorsement-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-appears-with-militia-supporters-in-video-call-that-included-endorsement-of-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Tina Peters appears with militia supporters in video call that included endorsement of violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, left, appeared with former Mesa County GOP officer Jacqueline Anderson, right, and Anderson\u2019s husband, Cory Anderson, during a Zoom call Thursday posted on the America\u2019s Mom Facebook page. Cory Anderson is flashing a hand sign of the militia group Three Percenters. (America\u2019s Mom Facebook)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who is under criminal investigation for her alleged involvement in a security breach<\/a> of election systems in her own office, appeared on a video call last week with supporters of the Three Percenter militia.<\/p>\n

The video <\/a>was posted Thursday on the America\u2019s Mom Facebook page, which is operated by Sherronna Bishop, a Peters ally whose home was searched Nov. 16 by the FBI as part of an investigation related to the case against Peters. Peters\u2019 home was also searched<\/a> that day.<\/p>\n

At one point in the video, a recording of a Zoom call, Peters is seen seated with Jacqueline Anderson, who last week, as reported by Colorado Times Recorder<\/em>, resigned her position<\/a> as first vice chair of the Mesa County Republican Party, and Anderson\u2019s husband, activist Cory Anderson, who previously has been identified as a Three Percenter member.<\/p>\n

Cory Anderson, discussing the Peters case, complains on the video that Mesa County has \u201cweak commissioners, weak sheriff, weak (district attorney),\u201d counting off on his pinky, fourth finger and middle finger \u2013 the three fingers that raised forms a Three Percenter hand sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree percent right there,\u201d Anderson says, as Jacqueline Anderson laughs and joins him in flashing the sign. \u201cHad to get my three out there. Show me the three, y\u2019all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters smiles. Moments earlier Peters said, \u201cCory needs to be sheriff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Three Percenters<\/a> are \u201can extremist movement that claims to be ready to carry out armed resistance to perceived tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters is accused of being involved in a security breach<\/a> of Mesa County election system equipment that resulted in passwords and other sensitive election system information becoming public. Peters, a Republican, was barred <\/a> by a court in a case brought by Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold from overseeing the coordinated election this month. Agents from the 21st Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office and the FBI participated in the search of Peters\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

On the video call, Peters repeated conspiracy-theory claims about the integrity of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the ones that cheated,\u201d she said in reference to the people involved in removing her from election oversight. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones that destroyed election records. They\u2019re the ones that are allowing influences to come into our computers changing votes and doing all these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she doesn\u2019t want to go to prison, but she is \u201cwilling\u201d to, to \u201cexpose the lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other figures who have promoted debunked claims that the election was illegitimate took part in the video call.<\/p>\n

\"Retired
Retired Air Force Col. Shawn Smith, a Colorado Springs resident, appeared during a Thursday Zoom call posted on the America\u2019s Mom Facebook page. (America\u2019s Mom Facebook screenshot)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Shawn Smith, a retired Air Force colonel from Colorado Springs who has worked with Colorado-based group U.S. Election Integrity Plan, which rejects the outcome of the election, made an appearance.<\/p>\n

He says during the video call that Dan Rubinstein, the Mesa County district attorney, should be investigated by the FBI. And he says \u201csomething\u2019s about to happen in a legal setting\u201d related to election integrity and involving jurisdictions throughout the state, adding that district attorneys will be obliged to investigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t investigate I think we\u2019re going to have to go to sheriffs and ask them to arrest the district attorneys,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n

Later Smith endorsed violence as a legitimate response to the government activity discussed in the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no desire whatsoever for violence, but I promise you that people in the country are not going to go down,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not going to be a tyrannical regime that stays in power. Only they\u2019ll recognize their limits under the law and this will be walked back or it\u2019s going to get very dangerous. And it\u2019s going to be dangerous all around. I hope it doesn\u2019t come to that, but if they think this is going to end somehow in surrender from the people, they\u2019re all wrong about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s backdrop on the call depicted a bald eagle filing its nails to sharp points.<\/p>\n

Former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, who is currently the executive director of the hard-right Republican Study Committee of Colorado, also joined the call. About law enforcement activities in the investigation into Peters and Bishop, Lundberg said, \u201cThey\u2019ve set a standard that is completely unacceptable, and we cannot respond in like, but we need to respond in such a way that it will be unmistakable that we won\u2019t go along with this type of tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop, a former campaign manager for Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, said law enforcement officers busted through her door during the search of her home, and she compared them to Nazis.<\/p>\n

She said the search warrant was related to a charge of \u201cconspiracy to commit wire fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the warrant it says that they were here to take anything electronic that they potentially could find any information on, so they took my cellphone immediately,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to film or take photos of anything and they took my laptop and my desktop.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the investigation is part of pushback against people who question election integrity, critical race theory being taught in schools, \u201ccomprehensive sex education\u201d and mask mandates in schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new day, for sure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a news release Monday, Boebert said she requested and received a briefing from Rubinstein, the Mesa County district attorney, about the involvement of the FBI and the presumption of innocence \u201cbe extended to all of those being investigated\u201d in connection with the investigation into Peters.<\/p>\n

She said she received assurance from the district attorney that he is \u201cbeing responsible in his approach\u201d and providing oversight of the FBI\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs many of you know, I have been a vocal opponent of the overreach and targeted nature of the FBI\u2019s activities on a national level,\u201d Boebert said in the release.<\/p>\n

The Durango Herald staff contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election denier Shawn Smith warns \u2018it\u2019s going to get very dangerous\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,168,457,28,993,1621],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-crime","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-headlines","tag-investigation","tag-voting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43616","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=43616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43616"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}