Trump meets with convicted election fraudster to discuss ‘the plans'

Then-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters at her primary election watch party at the Wide Open Saloon in Sedalia on June 28, 2022.

President Donald Trump met in the Oval Office with former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters, who is a convicted election fraudster, to discuss election integrity and “the plans” for the midterm elections, according to former Justice Department official Ed Martin.

Martin mentioned the meeting in an interview with conservative host Eric Bolling, saying Peters had met with Trump about two hours earlier.

“Tina Peters, you know, from Colorado, was in the Oval Office meeting with the president on election integrity, and they were talking about the plans,” Martin said. He then directed his attention to a warning issued in August by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin concerning foreign-made parts in U.S. voting equipment.

Martin stated that Mullin had concluded voting machines used components "from China and Russia and from other countries" and were therefore "compromised". He also said that Mullin had access to federal funds which could be used to assist the states in getting away from equipment regarded as vulnerable.

The letter that Mullin sent on August 24 was more specific. In it, he stated that voting machines incorporating components made by foreign adversaries presented "significant security risks" and linked access to federal security grants with random manual audits of paper ballots. News reports on the directive highlighted Chinese-made components used by the major voting-system vendors. However, the letter did not prove that the voting systems had been compromised or that the votes had been altered.

Martin maintained that these concerns entailed a role for the federal government even though elections had normally been left to the state and local governments.

“It is a local election. I ran the election board in St. Louis. There is local control,” Martin said. “However, the laws that govern the system, like safety and national security, are federal laws.”

He then returned to Peters’ meeting with Trump and linked it directly to the stalled SAVE America Act.

“When Tina Peters ... was in the Oval Office today, just two hours ago, talking about this question, the president’s taking it seriously,” Martin said.

“If Congress won’t pass the Save America Act, and they won’t, then the president’s going to have to do what he’s going to do.”

The Senate did not remain in Washington without having passed the legislation supported by the Republicans, which would have required new citizenship documentation and identification rules for federal elections.

Peters, who previously worked as a clerk for Mesa County, was found guilty in 2024 of seven offenses, four of which were felonies, as a result of a breach of the county's voting equipment in 2021. According to the prosecutors, she had allowed an unauthorized person to obtain access to the system while looking for evidence to back up the claims regarding the 2020 election.

This year, Colorado Governor Jared Polis reduced Peters’ prison sentence.

Martin didn't specify the exact 'plans' that Peters and Trump had discussed or state what action he thought Trump could take if Congress does not pass the legislation.

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