Tina Peters Colorado election official headlines Mike Lindells symposium on first night

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell capped the first day of his election symposium Tuesday with a keynote appearance by embattled Tina Peters, a county clerk and recorder who delivered her address hours after she says her office was raided as part of an investigation into a potential election security breach.

The investigation, announced Monday by Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, is in response to a Mesa County voting system password being revealed in photos posted by a QAnon follower on the social media platform Telegram. 

The photos, said to have been received from a “whistleblower” in Ms. Peters’ office, were used to propel a conspiracy theory that voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems had access to the county’s voting machines.

“Just yesterday I got an order from the Secretary of State that she was going to invade my elections department today,” Ms. Peters said. “And guess what, when I was on a plane to come to see you kind folks and to talk to you out there, guess what they did. They provided a search warrant and raided my office.”

Ms. Peters denied accusations that she was involved in the release of the passwords, and said the raid raised suspicions of her own.

“We don’t know what they were doing in there, because for several hours they wouldn’t let my chief deputy clerk, who was the acting clerk of Mesa County when I’m absent, wouldn’t even let her observe what the secretary of state and Dominion were doing in my office.”

Ms. Peters, who has said Mesa County citizens have brought questions over the election to her office, said she has been at odds with Ms. Griswold over her stance on election integrity.

“She has come into my office several times already in the last two years since I’ve been the elected official,” Ms. Peters said. “Because I am a Republican, I’m a conservative and she’s not. And she weaponizes her position to attack people that disagree with her.”

Mr. Lindell kicked off his three-day “Cyber Symposium” Tuesday. He claims he will present “indisputable” proof of a Chinese hack of the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Lindell says he has 37 terabytes of “irrefutable” evidence that hackers, who he said were backed by China, broke into election systems and switched votes in favor of President Biden.

He said he will present that evidence at the event.

Mr. Lindell promoted a “world-changing” announcement throughout Tuesday, which was supposed to take place at 8 p.m. EDT but was delayed.

Mr. Lindell announced the raid when he took the stage to introduce Ms. Peters.

“It’s a scary situation,” Mr. Lindell said. “It’s what everybody gets in. And they’re going, you know, they’re doing their job. And then all of a sudden, they take over that fear, put the fear into them.”

He said he was unsure at first whether Ms. Peters would take the stage, and some backstage were trying to convince her not to speak at the symposium.

“This is horrible,” he said, growing animated in front of a restless crowd. “What’s going on. It’s got to stop.”

Ms. Peters’ appearance capped a day first delayed by what Mr. Lindell said was a hack on the livestream of the event he is hosting on his website Frank Speech.

The day continued with persistent criticism of the media, and a slow rollout of his theory. 

Mr. Lindell held a mock election throughout the day to illustrate the process by which he said the November election was manipulated. Participants at the symposium voted between CNN or Fox News as the “most damaging” network.

He held breakout rooms with data experts to begin combing through the evidence he said supports his claim, but some still wait for a significant reveal.

Robert Graham, a skeptical cyber expert in attendance, has continued to call over Twitter for Mr. Lindell to release the raw material, or packet captures, that Mr. Lindell says prove his theory. 

Mr. Lindell has released a streaming video of the packet captures on his website, but some say they are of little use without the raw data.

“For all that Mike Lindell attacks critics, do remember that he invited critics to come to the event, which is something I respect,” Mr. Graham said on Twitter. “On the other hand, failure to give the critics the data they were promised, well, I’m frustrated by that. I’m a [packet capture] guy who loves [packet captures].”

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