By Jesse Wegman
For four years, Donald Trump and his allies have been injecting dangerous lies into the American bloodstream, claiming without any actual evidence that the 2020 election he lost was tainted by serious fraud.
As it turns out, there was indeed serious fraud in the 2020 election. On Thursday, one perpetrator of that fraud was sentenced to nine years in prison for her crimes. Tina Peters, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, in 2020, tampered with voting machines in an effort to prove the election had been rigged against Trump. The data she allowed to be downloaded made its way to a presentation given by Mike Lindell, the pillow-hawking conspiracist.
“You abused your position, and you are a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that’s proven to be junk time and time again,” Judge Matthew Barrett said as he dressed down Peters for more than 13 minutes.
Amazing how our legal system is able to distinguish between real evidence and fake evidence, isn’t it?
I take no pleasure in seeing people lose their liberty, especially for such a long time. But sometimes it is necessary to protect the broader public and to send a message to others who would commit the same offense. Barrett emphasized this point in handing down the punishment, which he opted for in lieu of a less severe measure like probation. Prison, he said, is “where we send people who are a danger to all of us, whether it be by the pen or the sword or the word of the mouth.” He continued, “It’s particularly damaging when those words come from someone who holds a position of influence like you.”
“I’m convinced you would do it again if you could,” he added in a final rationale for placing Peters behind bars. “You’re as defiant a defendant as I’ve ever seen.”
Now imagine the person sitting in the defendant’s chair is not a local election official but the former president of the United States. Barrett’s words could be said verbatim to Donald Trump.
We can only imagine it for now, because Trump has avoided any legal consequence for his persistent lies, his stoking of the public mistrust and his incitements to violence. This is the fault of the Supreme Court, which immunized the president against almost all official acts in July, delaying what could be the most consequential trial in the nation’s history.
Emboldened by that ahistoric, extra-constitutional ruling, Trump remains defiant. No one needs to be persuaded he would do it again, because he already is. The only choice left is to defeat him at the polls a month from now, and then, if he is convicted at trial, he will face real accountability at last. As Barrett said, prison is where we send those who are a danger to us all.
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