Pro-Trump Colorado clerk being investigated for alleged election tampering appears to kick at police officer during arrest

• A Colorado county clerk who has pushed election lies was arrested on Tuesday.
• During the arrest, Peters appears to kick at an officer trying to seize her iPad.
• The arrest is unrelated to a lawsuit brought by the Colorado secretary of state, accusing her of leaking election data.

Tina Peters, a pro-Trump elections clerk in Mesa County, Colorado — who is the subject of a grand jury investigation into alleged election tampering and official misconduct — appeared to kick at a police officer as she was being arrested on Tuesday, according to a video shared by local news station KUSA reporter Kyle Clark.

The arrest in Grand Junction, Colorado, was unrelated to the election investigation.

According to a tweeted statement from the Grand Junction Police Department, authorities were trying to execute a warrant issued by the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office, leading to the arrest.

According to KUSA, the warrant was for Peters’ iPad. Peters is suspected of using her iPad to record a court proceeding for her deputy clerk Belinda Knisley. Knisley is accused of introducing a security vulnerability into Mesa County’s election systems.

Taking video was not authorized, and according to the affidavit for the warrant, there were notices not to film posted in the courtroom. A judge also warned that if he found somebody was recording “he would take appropriate legal action,” per the affidavit viewed by Colorado Public Radio.

A paralegal and deputy district attorney observed Peters operating the “camera” app on the iPad during the hearing, which would constitute a felony offense, Colorado Politics reported, citing a search warrant.

Peters was arrested after failing to comply with officers’ search warrant, according to Grand Junction police. In a statement posted on Twitter, the police department said she was “arrested and released on scene, pending charges related to this incident.”

Peters’ office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

In an emailed statement to the Denver Post, a spokesman for her legal defense fund said, “The search warrant presented listed exactly one item, an iPad with a white case.”

“Clerk Peters complied with that, then officers began attempting to take other items of personal property, not listed in the warrant including her car keys, which is illegal,” Rory McShane, the spokesman, continued.

—Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) February 8, 2022

Peters has been the subject of national attention in the summer of 2021. Information that appeared to be from her county’s voting machines was presented at MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “Cyber Symposium” conference in August, which she attended. The information also circulated among QAnon influencers like Ron Watkins.

In summer 2021, Peters, a Republican, was sued by the Colorado secretary of state and accused of allowing a security breach of the county’s election equipment, according to the lawsuit.

Peters was removed from overseeing elections by a local judge, in November 2021. That same month, the FBI raided her home, “in support of an ongoing investigation into the alleged election system breach in Mesa County.”