A CBS News 60 Minutes investigation broadcast on Sunday, October 25, has put Colorado's Tina Peters case back at the centre of the national election fight. Peters, a former Mesa County clerk, was convicted by a jury on seven state counts — four felonies and three misdemeanours — after prosecutors said she helped an unauthorised person access secure voting equipment while chasing claims that voting machines had cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. A judge sentenced her to nearly nine years in prison.

Source: CBS News 60 Minutes, via WGHN

Secretary of State Jena Griswold told CBS that Peters ordered surveillance cameras turned off and then took images of the voting equipment and shared them with a network of election deniers — allegations Peters was convicted over and still disputes. Judge Matthew Barrett told her at sentencing: 'You are no hero. You abused your position, and you're a charlatan.' More than 60 lawsuits alleging fraud in the 2020 election were dismissed or withdrawn, and federal, state and local investigators found no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome, CBS noted.

Source: CBS News 60 Minutes, via WGHN

Mr Trump called Peters a 'hostage' and a patriot, promised 'harsh measures' if she was not released, and issued a pardon that had no legal effect because her conviction was on state, not federal, charges. Attorney General Phil Weiser alleges the administration then punished Colorado: federal wildfire aid was denied, food aid was threatened, $109 million in transportation funding was cancelled and a move began to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. 'The threats were not hidden, they were not subtle, they were out in the open, and we're fighting back,' said Weiser, whose office is suing the president alleging a retaliation campaign. The White House denies the charge: 'There is no politicization to the president's decisions on disaster relief,' spokesperson Lauren Bis said, and the administration has described the actions as independent agency decisions.

Source: CBS News 60 Minutes, via WGHN

In May, after Peters had served less than two years, Governor Jared Polis commuted her sentence. 'She should've gotten a year, two years, three years,' Polis told 60 Minutes. 'When she got close to nine years, I was shocked.' He said the decision was about a 'nonviolent, elderly, first-time offender' and not about Mr Trump: 'This would've been much easier to do had the president never mentioned her.' The Colorado County Clerks Association said it was 'furious' and 'disgusted'; its director Matt Crane, a Republican, called the commutation 'a complete betrayal of the election community' and said Polis 'bent the knee to President Trump' — an accusation Polis rejects.

Source: CBS News 60 Minutes transcript, via WDAD

Since the commutation, CBS reported, federal money that had been delayed is flowing to Colorado again: $47 million for water projects was unfrozen, and last month the administration approved federal wildfire aid for the state. Peters, unapologetic in her 60 Minutes interview — 'can people trust these machines? My answer is no' — has returned to the election-denial circuit and has met Mr Trump at the White House. Election officials Griswold and Crane told CBS they worry the case has harmed voters' confidence in election workers and the election system itself.

Source: CBS News 60 Minutes, via WGHN