Tina Peters Prosecution – Criminalizing Records Preservation (CO)

[Established Fact – As to prosecution] Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters was prosecuted under Colorado state law for preserving forensic images of her county’s election management system (EMS) server – images that documented the deletion of nearly 29,000 files during a Dominion “trusted build” process jointly authorized by the Colorado Secretary of State. Peters’ act of preservation was the predicate for the Mesa County Forensic Reports that documented the deletion of 695+ legally required log files within the 22-month federal retention window. Prosecuting the official who documented potential record destruction – rather than the officials who conducted or authorized the trusted build that deleted the records – inverts the accountability relationship contemplated by 52 U.S.C. § 20701 and raises the inference that the prosecution served to suppress forensic evidence rather than vindicate election law.