Tuesday began with a bang for a Colorado County official when a battering ram broke down her front door around 6 a.m.
“Today, large teams of heavily armed federal agents, using a battering ram to break down doors, raided the homes of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and several of her friends and colleagues, mostly elderly women in their mid-60s,” read a statement issued by her defense team.
“Essentially, they were soldiers in combat gear. They were not men in suits with badges,” Peters said. “They looked very much like they were in a combat zone — soldiers with automatic weapons and combat gear.”
The home of Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s former campaign manager, Sherronna Bishop, was one of the others searched Tuesday. FBI agents executed search warrants at four locations in Western Colorado.
Ms. Bishop told host Brandon Howse that FBI agents broke down her front door, and took her outside and handcuffed her. “All of a sudden, there was such an emergency they had to bash my door in, scare my children, manhandle my daughter and put me in handcuffs is interesting,” she said.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and 21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein fired back Wednesday at claims of excessive force:
“Yesterday, the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office—along with our FBI partners—conducted authorized enforcement actions in support of an ongoing investigation into the alleged election system breach in Mesa County. We have reviewed a statement from Tina Peters’ legal defense fund that claims a level of force during the execution of this joint federal-state law enforcement operation.
At no time was force used on Ms. Peters or her home. Ms. Peters was allowed to move around her home and fix herself breakfast while agents gathered items before departing. We are issuing this statement to clear up inaccuracies about what occurred during yesterday’s enforcement action. We will continue to conduct a thorough investigation based on facts and the law, including using proper law enforcement tools such as the judicially authorized search that was executed properly in this matter.”
The saga with Peters, elected in 2018, began when she allegedly allowed an unauthorized man access to a secure area in the county elections office in May, with help of Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley and a county election manager, Sandra Brown, according to a lawsuit. Later, passwords from the voting systems were posted online in August.
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