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Since we started National Zero, we’ve put together probably – to the best of our recollection – at least five long retrospectives, all covering delimited periods since the 2020 election and its aftermath: The Fall of the Trump Regime: One Month Later, The Fall of the Trump Regime: Six Months Later, The Tulsa Disaster: One Year Later, Six months of Republicans wishing the Capitol riot never happened, Enter the Cancel-verse: Six months of insanely stupid grievances and bullshit conspiracies that went nowhere for MAGA Nation, plus a few pieces that were more essays than roundups (and some unfortunately aborted efforts). What they all had in common was that they were milestones in time that had passed since they happened, not the time period itself.

August 2022 was different. The calendar itself neatly contained an absolute fucking nightmare month for MAGA fascism in the United States. Nearly all of what happened was the culmination of threads that had been a long time coming beforehand and nearly all of them will continue twisting and turning long into the future afterward, but for whatever reason the fates decided to weave them together in a tapestry on which so much started going right for Democrats and wrong for the MAGA cult. We have no choice but to do our first ever month-in-a-month recap.

Republican Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, facing trial on a 13 count indictment over her tampering with Dominion Voting Systems election equipment is now once again a wanted fugitive after she violated the terms of her pretrial release by contacting the current election administrator for Mesa, leading a the judge to issue a warrant for her arrest bond Thursday, Denver 7 reports.

The new warrant comes less than a week after Peters was accused of violating pretrial release terms by traveling to Nevada to speak at some QAnon fan convention, a warrant that was later quashed by the judge after Peters’ attorney explained there was a misunderstanding and admitted he had not properly communicated the terms to his client. The judge agreed. It’s certain if Peters’ bond will be revoked after she’s apprehended. It should be, but who the hell knows at this point.

Republican Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, facing trial on a 13 count indictment over her tampering with Dominion Voting Systems election equipment is now a wanted fugitive after she violated the terms of her pretrial release by leaving the state without permission from the court, leading a judge to revoke her bond Thursday, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports.

Peters’ flight from justice comes just days after a second accomplice of hers was arrested for her involvement in the moronic scheme to steal the software code from Dominion’s tabulation devices and leak it to associates of MyPillow assclown Mike Lindell to prove the 2020 election was stolen via remote hacking of the air-gapped ballot counting equipment.

A third 2020 election truther scumbag has been arrested for her involvement in Mesa County, Colorado clerk and QAnon freak Tina Peters’ insane attempt to “expose” Dominion Voting Systems ballot tabulation devices’ non-existent internet connection, NBC News reports.

Sandra Brown, Mesa County’s former elections manager who reported to the failed Secretary of State candidate Peters, turned herself in Monday to the county sheriff’s office on an arrest warrant for suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempting to influence a public servant. Brown joins Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley in facing time for their batshit stupid leak of video of Dominion’s software, implicating themselves by using a unique password that had been issued to their office by the Secretary of State. The whole shitshow was masterminded by MyPillow assclown Mike Lindell and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne with the encouragement of QAnon fan and alleged prostitute Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.

Republican former Colorado state House Minority Leader Joseph Stengel was in on Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder’s Dominion conspiracy “investigation” bullshit and received data improperly taken from county computers, Reuters reports in their ongoing series of breaches of election systems nationwide by MAGA assholes seeking revenge for the 2020 election.

Stengel, who has long been out of politics, having resigned his seat in 2006 over allegations he fucked around with his timesheet and overbilled taxpayers (kind of like fellow “Stop the Steal” asshole Wisconsin state Rep Tim Ramthun), was named by Schroeder in testimony as part of the investigation by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office for the leak of election systems data in Elbert County… Not to be confused with Mesa County, whose clerk Tina Peters also pulled the same kind of shit and was hit with a 13 count indictment for it in March.

Trump cultists in eight different locales across the United States have been caught breaching or attempting to breach voting systems and stolen sensitive security information in their desperate search for something, anything, that will somehow help prove the 2020 election was “stolen” and then something something return their Orange God Emperor to the White House, Reuters reports.

Among the attacks include last week’s report by Reuters of threats from a North Carolina county GOP chairman to the local Elections Commissioner, some asshole QAnon fan clerk in Michigan refusing to perform basic maintenance on tabulators because the dipshit believed doing so would erase evidence of fraud or hacking or Jewish ritual sorcery performed on the machines, the sad and hilarious ballad of Mesa County Colorado Clerk Tina Peters, and the newly reported and extremely similar ballad of Elbert County, Colorado Clerk Dallas Schroeder, who was on literally on the phone with MAGA 2020 election conspiracy megastar Phil Waldron when he was caught on security cameras messing with computers as Waldron walked him thought how to steal the data.

When a jurisdiction wants to prosecute bagged torn foam magnate and Trump Conspiracy Director Mike Lindell, they should just hire Mike Lindell.

According to KUSA NBC 9 News in Denver, Lindell has again put himself in hot water, this time by bragging that he gave embattled Colorado county clerk Tina Peters $800,000 to use for her legal defense in court cases about a data breach she essentially admitted to at Lindell’s “symposium” on the hacking of the 2020 election, held last August.

“I just put all the money in myself,” Lindell said of Peters’ legal defense fund. “I don’t know, I probably put in three, four, five, maybe 800,000 [dollars] of my own money.”  Lindell then went on to say that he covered all the expenses for Peters to travel to South Dakota to attend the August event.

The problem?  No elected official or public employee can take a gift of over $65 from anyone other than a family member or longtime friend.  So now Peters is not just facing a state criminal trial and a federal investigation into election tampering; she’s also facing a state ethics investigation.

MyPillow assclown Mike Lindell, headlining a Tuesday “Election Truth” rally along with batshit QAnon freak Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters at the Colorado state Capitol in Denver, was snagged by a process server sent by former Dominion executive Eric Coomer shortly before Lindell spoke to the crowd, 9News’s Marshall Zelinger reports. Per Zelinger, Lindell then ranted from a podium on the Capitol steps and admitted he broke state ethics laws by spending over $800,000 on Peters’ legal defense, far outstripping the limit of $65 on gifts to Colorado public officials.

Coomer’s been kicking ass in court in his defamation cases against the MAGA Reich after they falsely accused him of colluding with Antifa to rig the 2020 election against the Orange God Emperor. Most famously last September Coomer’s legal team obtained an internal Trump campaign memo in which it was made clear Donald and his minions knew full well their stories were bullshit.

Things are not going so great for Peters, arrested twice in the last two months, the second a massive 13-count indictment on a whole litany of felonies including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identify theft, and first-degree official misconduct after her August 2021 caper in which she implicated herself in a scheme to tamper with Dominion-branded voting equipment owned by the state of Colorado – which had to be replaced, costing millions of dollars.

Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the QAnon freak and Mike Lindell acolyte famous for her moronic attempt to “expose” Dominion tabulation equipment and arrest last week for recording a court proceeding, announced on Steve Bannon’s show on Monday she’s running for Colorado Secretary of State, the Washington Post reports. “Colorado deserves a secretary of state who will stand up to the Biden administration… And, Steve, that’s why today I’m announcing that I’m running for Colorado secretary of state,” Peters said Monday. Peters is facing an array of lawsuits over her batfuckery and also reportedly under federal criminal investigation for tampering with election equipment, but it’s not like that’s stopped other Republicans from running for office before.

Tina Peters, the Mesa County (Colorado) clerk who reportedly opened up voting machines to Trump supporting activists and caused the release of system passwords, was arrested at a criminal court hearing in Mesa, Colorado Public Radio reports.

Peters was seen by Paralegal Haley Gonzalez and Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Mosher apparently video recording court proceedings in a case about a former county employee who illegally accessed computer systems using Peters’ log in credentials.

Judge Matthew Barrett warned that gallery that he would “take appropriate legal action” if anyone was caught recording court sessions, which is illegal, a fact posted on signs throughout the courthouse.  Barrett said he was satisfied with Peters response that she was not recording anything with her iPad. 

“Federal, state and local authorities searched the homes of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and three of her associates on Tuesday as part of an investigation into accusations the elected official was involved in voting machine security breaches, according to an official who helped conduct the searches. The FBI carried out a court-ordered search of Peters’ home in Mesa County early Tuesday morning, leaving her ‘terrified,’ Peters said Tuesday night in an appearance on Lindell TV, an online channel run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter and proponent of discredited claims the 2020 election was stolen. ‘We executed four federally court-authorized operations today to gather evidence in connection with the investigation into the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office,’ District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told Colorado Politics.”

“‘We did so with assistance from the DA’s office from the 21st Judicial District, the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI.’ He added that one of the searches occurred in neighboring Garfield County. Lindell said one of the homes raided by law enforcement authorities belongs to Sherronna Bishop, a Garfield County resident and former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Peters, a Republican serving her first term as the Western Slope county’s chief elections official, was prohibited last month by a Mesa County judge from overseeing the election in the county in a ruling on a lawsuit filed by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold” – Colorado Politics

AP: “A judge has ruled that a Colorado county elections clerk cannot be involved in the November elections after multiple investigations, including a criminal probe by the FBI, were opened into a security breach of the county’s voting machines. Judge Valerie Robison issued an injunction Wednesday prohibiting Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley, from acting as designated election officials for the upcoming elections. Robison ruled that Peters and Knisley ‘committed a breach and neglect of duty and other wrongful acts’ making them ‘unable or unwilling to appropriately perform’ their duties as election officials.”

“Secretary of State Jena Griswold sued to remove Peters as clerk and recorder after she said images of election equipment management software from Mesa County were obtained by elections conspiracy theorists and posted on far-right blogs. Her office says one of the images was taken May 23 from a secure room in Mesa County where the voting equipment was stored and was accessed that day by Peters, who allowed a non-employee into the room. The secretary of state’s office has identified the person it says was allowed into the secure room but has refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isn’t naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime. In a statement issued after the ruling, Griswold praised the judge’s order which granted her requests for the appointment of Wayne Williams as the designated election official and Sheila Reiner as the election supervisor for Mesa County. ‘The Court’s decision today bars Peters from further threatening the integrity of Mesa’s elections and ensures Mesa County residents have the secure and accessible election they deserve,’ she said.”

Workers at the office of the county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado were dragged to an April after-hours event in a hotel conference room in Grand Junction by their MAGA psychopath boss, Tina Peters, hosted by fellow Mike Lindell acolyte, Douglas Frank, reports the Washington Post.

National Zero readers may remember “Dr Frank” as the American flag bow tie-wearing dipshit who bored the crowd at the June Trump rally in Ohio with an opening act full of incomprehensible Excel spreadsheets. Mesa County clerk’s office employees were subjected to 90 minutes of the high school teacher/discredited conspiracy theorist’s stupid bullshit, per the Post, with one election official quoted as saying it was “a huge slap in the face… We put so much time and effort into making sure that everything’s done accurately” only to be stuck watching Frank drone on about a “sixth-order polynomial”-based algorithm having tilted the election toward Biden.

Peters herself hasn’t shown up to work since August, when it was revealed that she or someone close to her had leaked Dominion ballot tabulation device source code to the MAGA internet. She’s currently being sued by the Colorado Secretary of State, under federal criminal investigation, and being hidden in an undisclosed location by Mike Lindell, supposedly from a Dominion hit squad.

“Wayne Williams, the former Colorado secretary of state who’s newly in charge of Mesa County elections, said he hasn’t heard from Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters since the news broke that her office was under investigation. Williams said he hadn’t tried to reach Peters. ‘My focus is on trying to make the election work,’ he told Newsline on Tuesday. ‘I know the commissioners have made pleas to her to come in and start (running) the recording and motor vehicles side, but my focus is to run an election. That’s what I’m charged to do, and that’s what I’m going to do.’

“Williams, a Republican, is currently serving in a nonpartisan role on Colorado Springs City Council in addition to supervising Mesa County’s November election. Peters hasn’t been seen in Mesa County since Secretary of State Jena Griswold – Williams’ Democratic successor – announced Aug. 9 that she was investigating a ‘serious breach’ of election security protocols at Peters’ office. A few days later, Griswold accused Peters of allowing an unauthorized individual to attend a May software upgrade, known as a ‘trusted build,’ for Dominion Voting Systems machines. Peters is also under investigation by the 21st Judicial District attorney’s office and the FBI” – Colorado Newsline.

Daily Beast: “Seated onstage at the most-hyped election conspiracy event of the year, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, Tina Peters, described herself as a crusader for election security. ‘I’ve looked at it objectively,’ Peters said of supposed issues in election data during her speech at MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s ‘Cyber Symposium’ this month. ‘There’s some discrepancies there that I cannot deny, and I tell people, ‘I cannot unsee some of these things.’ If I’m going to be honest with the people of Mesa County and Colorado and all of you, I cannot unsee some of these things.’ But at home in Mesa County, some current and former officials have a different recollection of Peters’ tenure overseeing elections.”

“During Peters’ first year as clerk, in 2019, her office was blamed for leaving more than 570 uncounted ballots in a box, long past an election. Less than a year later, one of her office’s drop boxes leaked ballots, sending some floating in the summer breeze. Now Peters has gone underground, reportedly hiding in a safe house provided by Lindell, after she allegedly participated in a breach of Mesa County voting machine data this year. That data soon wound up on conspiracy websites, making Peters a folk hero among the MAGA set and the subject of an FBI investigation. Peters (who did not return requests for comment) took office in 2019, after her predecessor, Sheila Reiner, reached her term limit. What followed was an unusually bombastic tenure in a typically low-drama role. While overseeing the November 2019 general election, Peters’ office forgot to count 574 ballots, instead leaving them unattended in a drop box outside her office for months.”

MAGA Assclown Mike Lindell is reportedly assisting a Colorado elections official suspected of leaking the passwords for Dominion Voting Systems equipment in her charge to an 8Chan shithead who went ahead and published them online. That Mesa County clerk, Tina Peters, is reportedly hiding out in a safe house provided by pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell. If Peters is indeed being sought by the FBI for questioning in connection to the breach of Mesa’s election equipment, and Lindell is in fact concealing her whereabouts, then the concealment of Peters constitutes a conspiracy against the federal government.

This story is a perfect example of why federal law enforcement agencies need to start getting more aggressive in cracking down on fascism enthusiasts. American Democracy is on the line and if the Justice Department doesn’t start cracking heads (literally or figuratively, either ways is fine) these idiots are only going to become even more emboldened, just like Hitler was when he only got 8 months in prison for sticking a revolver in the face of a trio of German officials.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday that it is assisting Colorado law enforcement officials investigating the leak of usernames and passwords for the Mesa County voting machines on a QAnon-affiliated website, CNN reports.

Mesa County clerk Tina Peters, who appeared at last weeks cyber symposium hosted by Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist and foam magnate Mike Lindell, has been blamed for the leak.  Peters reported gave access to the secure room where that information is kept to Gerald Wood, a non-employee of the election board. Reportedly, Wood and Peters, along with an unnamed person who was a high-level employee of the county elections office, accessed a secure room in the elections office and made copies of hard drives on elections equipment and polling machines. The files were kept on one of these devices, and the information was later included in videos posted by 8chan founder and man rumored to be the “real Q”, Ron Watkins, on his Telegram feed.

Peters appeared at Lindell’s conference last week, claiming she was being targeted as a scapegoat by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. However, employee key cards for Peters and the employee – and another apparently carried by Wood, even though he isn’t an employee -were used to open various secure doors in the elections office, records show.

https://youtu.be/K3Rv-k4eQ_c

Watch as two men come to realize Mike Lindell’s symposium is a sham.

“So I wanted to give you an update from the cyber symposium up here in Sioux Falls,” one of the obviously professional cybersecurity experts at the Lindell-hosted Gonna-Blow-Your-Mind Conference August 2021 edition (sponsored by MyPillow) says.  “Lotta information; not a whole lot of evidence.  I think that’s what I have the takeaway.  [His buddy chimes in with a sage-like, ‘Yep.’]  There was an announcement at seven o’clock with some breaking news that should’ve blown it outta the water.  Um.  Not that it wasn’t a lot of information.  The current Secretary of the State [sic] of Chi– of, of, of– [Again, his buddy, a man of few words, pipes up:  ‘Colorado.’] Colorado basically framed a county clerk for releasing the passwords that only she had access to, so…  Other than that, I mean, to me it’s kind’ve a nothingburger, but, um… I’m lookin’ forward to some evidence today and I think that hopefully we’ll get through that.”

Like a great many of the comings and goings we here at National Zero end up reporting on, this story begins in the dregs of the MAGA internet, where facts and beliefs are interchangeable:

The article reads like some unemployed incel’s third attempt at a “cyber thriller” movie script but he hasn’t get around to writing any actual dialogue yet. It’s rehashed shit from Telegram posts by “CodeMonkeyZ”, aka 8chan founder Ron Watkins, aka the man widely-rumored to be the “real” Q of QAnon fame, alleging that Dominion Voting Systems ballot tabulation devices can be connected to the internet, thus “proving” the 2020 presidential election was hacked and stolen from Trump, and so on and so forth. Various pieces of the alleged whistleblower’s “evidence” was included in the article, along with a video posted on right wing YouTube knockoff Rumble.