In May of 2021, she turned off the surveillance cameras that monitored the voting machines in the clerk’s office, and ordered they be kept off until August 2021 in advance of the next election. While she pointed out the law doesn’t require that she keep cameras on constantly, she had never before had cameras turned off.
Days after having the cameras turned off, she gave a QAnon conspiracy nut (Conan Hayes, a clothing company founder) access to the electronic voting machines in order to copy sensitive data from them. She also allowed him to be present when a software update was being done to the machines, and let him record the process. Other staff in the office had no idea who the man was, and Peters was not forthcoming to people about who he was or why he was there.
It also turned out that Peters had required that Gerald Wood, a contractor for the office, give his employee badge to her shortly after receiving it, as part of a “background check”. He ended up never using the badge or even doing any work for the clerk’s office. That same badge was given to Hayes to use fraudulently for access purposes as he took data and recorded sensitive information.
Hayes stayed in a hotel paid for by Lauren Boebert’s campaign manager Sherronna Bishop. Peters also admitted having dinner with Hayes, Bishop, and Boebert, where presumably they all conspired together.
Ron Watkins, administrator of web site 8kun and long suspected to be the person behind the mysterious “Q” that created QAnon on 8kun (I’m 99% sure that he is) leaked sensitive information on his site which was traced back to Hayes. It included computer files, passwords, and the video that Hayes had taken of the software update to voting machines.
So yeah, she did a bit more than just engage in speech.
I’m a Polis defender, but even I know that Polis’s reason, and that of the judges, could not be the same.
Polis could have just let the court resentence. Web search says there was a case in 2023 (People v. Quillen) where the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered resentencing, approximately like here. Polis did not commute the sentence. He let the court do it. And the obvious-to-me and fully justified reason is that state interest differs. In this case, it was in the interest of his state to stop pissing off the federal dictator.
So are millions of others. What a terrible reason to keep someone in prison for even just a few months more, which is at most what would have happened if Polis listened to the Democratic Party base..
Median voters do not want the Democrats spending time on revenge.
Emotionally, I must be different than most here. To me, all half-way reasonable excuses to free people from prison should be grabbed at.
Even if in a small way, this helps enable Trump, and helps enable grifters who benefit from Trump and Trumpism, as well as dangerous fanatics willing to break the law and subvert democracy for Trump. Whether Peters is a grifter, fanatic, or both, any minuscule benefit to broader justice doesn’t remotely justify this enabling of Trump, Trumpers, and Trumpism.
Of course. Because commuting her sentence gives the implication that what she did wasn’t that bad. That’s why Polis should have never done this, and deserves every bit of the shitstorm to come.
All that matters is what people think, and they’re not going to think that. They’re going to see it the same as a pardon. And that’s why you don’t do that in a case like this.
You are putting words in my mouth. I never implied that the fact that ms. Peters is a snotty shit is a reason to keep her in prison. It was just an aside to my opinion that what Polis did was did was wrong. Caving to a dictator is not a ‘half -way reasonable excuse’, in my humble opinion it is one of the absolute worst reasons.
Seeking justice is not looking for revenge and I think most median voters don’t want trump stepping on justice, especially in a case involving him.
This could be used to argue against any high profile sentence commutation — some people will think back and recall a pardon.
What about the comparison to a prisoner exchange with Russia, where we give back a convicted spy? I am all for that. And Putin is worse than Trump.
Someone could say that then we are sure Putin is giving something of value to us in exchange, whereas it’s just speculation that Trump will now reduce the illegal (but not usually stopped by courts) impoundment of federal money to Colorado. That’s the one argument against what I’m pushing here that has a little force to me. I just think Trump is going to lose interest in hurting Colorado because of this. And even without being told, FEMA top brass will get that message.
If Polis had done the right thing and upheld the rule of law, keeping Peters in jail as determined by a jury, a judge, courtroom norms, and written sentencing guidelines; and if Trump, in retaliation illegally deprived Coloradoans of legally described Federal aid, Coloradoans would indeed suffer.
However, to suggest this suffering was the result of ANYTHING Polis did, and not the result of Peters’ decision to break the law, and Trump’s decision to break the law, is beyond shallow. Do you blame little boys for getting circumcised also? How about doughnuts for being eaten? Do you blame victims and cops for putting people into the criminal juistice system, but not the law breakers themselves?
Polis caved and betrayed his constituents, the entire judicial system, and the rest of the United States. That’s not an overstatement, it’s just the truth.
Re last post, the historical examples of that are where authorities took action against supposed regime opponents, such as Jewish professors in Nazi Germany, or liberal journalists under Donald Trump, in advance of being ordered. See this 2024 Columbia Journalism Review article:
What happened in Colorado is complying in advance of being ordered to let a regime friend out of prison – when the orders were already pretty far along in being implemented. That’s so harmless that historians of complying in advance wouldn’t even mention it.
P.S. Although I think Polis was justified on grounds I’ve identified in previous posts, I am wondering if maybe there is a historical example I am missing. If so, I think it will be an example of releasing a murderer.
Since the majority of people in Colorado prisons will at some point be eligible for parole there would be nothing wrong with Polis commuting all of their sentences tomorrow?
Indeed, in some areas, prisoners with a year or less have been released or commuted.
But when the Courts throw out the sentence, saying it was too harsh, commutation is not a bad way to go. Saves a new trial. And she still is a convicted felon.
