December 4, 2025 • 34 mins
Dan Rubenstein, Republican district attorney in Colorado's 21st judicial district, joins Sheriff Steve Reams to discuss a recent push by President Trump to transfer convicted former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters from state to federal custody in order to facilitate her release from prison.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to The Dan Caplis Show, Hour two of
two and day three of three. For me and tomorrow, Dan,
we'll be back or you'll have another guest host. I'm
not real sure, still working that out on the fly.
I'm sure there'll be something settled in the next few
hours and you'll have something different tomorrow, whatever that may be.
Speaking of something different, I said we were going to
(00:35):
go into a different topic for hour two. We're going
to break away from the governor stuff and we're going
to talk about something that's completely non controversial, and that's
the Tina Peters case. I say that tongue in cheek
because obviously that gets Republicans and Democrats alike stirred for
different reasons. And I guess the best way to kind
of explain where we're going to go with this topic
(00:57):
is by playing an audio clip. If we could Ryan
audio clip double zero.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, President Trump continues to call for former Mesa County
Clerk Tina Peters to be released from state custody into
federal custody. So far, many leaders in the states say
that they don't want to see that happen. Fox to
one political reporter Gabrielle Franklin and joining us Now Live
this evening to explain why this is Gabrielle Christine.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
The President is once again putting pressure on Colorado. A
bipartisan group of leaders is urging the governor not to
cave in.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think this is really a conversation that is being
held at the governor's office, and the governor has in
the past been a staunch supporter of Colorado's election law
and of election officials, and so we're really hoping that,
you know, he continues to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The pressure is on for Governor Jared Polis. Sunday morning,
the President took to True Social yet again to post
about Tina Peters. This time he posted free Tina Peters,
who sits in a Colorado prison, dying and old for
attempting to expose voter fraud and the rig twenty twenty
presidential election. The President originally posted something similar, less, and
(02:00):
the pushback has been coming ever.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Since, whether that's a formal request or posting on social
media or shouting from a street corner, it is never
okay for the president to think that he is above
the law, or that anybody who broke the law and
compromised her own elections and really eroded public trust.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Really just shouldn't be acceptable.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzales and clerks from all sixty
four counties across the state sent the governor letter last
week saying, in part, we asked that you decline any
request to transfer miss Peters to federal custody. Colorado's judicial
process should be respected and the sentence imposed by a
Colorado court should be carried out under Colorado's authority. Send
(02:44):
a message to all Colorado's, to the nation, and to
every public servant watching that this state does not abandon
those who do what is right. Colorado Attorney General Phil
Wiser and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein also put
out a joint letter last week asking the governor to
reject the formal request from the Federal Bureau of Prison, saying,
in part, shifting her custody to the federal government is
(03:07):
an attempt to bypass our judicial system, all to offer
a politically connected inmate the comforts of an easier sentence.
Colorado Secretary of State also weighing in.
Speaker 6 (03:17):
Trump cannot pardon Peters, and so he is trying to
bully and retally against the state.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
That's what he does.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
The governor's office says that he and the state's Department
of Corrections are reviewing the administration's requests. They also said
that the governor appreciates all the different state officials who've
been weighing in on this.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So we come back from that audio, and I think
that kind of sets the stage for where we're at.
You know, there's some argument right now about should Tina
Peters leave state custody and go back to federal custody,
should she remain where she's at. And there's you know,
there's opinions from both sides of the of the aisle,
if you will, that hey, we want to keep her
in state custody. And then there's the voters who many
(03:59):
of which said, hey, Tina did absolutely nothing wrong, her
conviction should never have happened, and she should be released
or at least transferred to federal custody so that she
can be released or pardoned by potentially President Trump, and
President Trump recently put out a tweet that let's.
Speaker 8 (04:16):
Just hear in his own voice, the sleevesbag governor of Colorado,
Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters,
who is unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do cheating
on elections, out of jail. She was convicted for trying
to stop Democrats from stealing Colorado votes in the election.
Speaker 9 (04:37):
She was preserving.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
Election records, which she was obligated to do under federal law.
She has now served more than one year in jail
and has eight years to go. On top of everything else,
she's a cancer quote survivor. This lightweight governor who's actually
quite heavy, who has allowed his state to go to
hell trendy Aragua one should be ashamed of himself.
Speaker 9 (05:02):
Free Tina.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
Thank you, President. That's actually Ryan schuling.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But he does a way better Trump impression than I do,
So thank you for reading that. That's that's quite a talent,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 11 (05:12):
It gets the gist across. I know Sean Ferish, but
he'll do an don't quit your day job, and.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
I added that part where he's not so light, he's
actually quite heavy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You know, the most accurate part of this entire tweet
published whatever is the part that says the.
Speaker 9 (05:28):
Oh yeah right loving it's all caps.
Speaker 10 (05:31):
Yes, I mean, what can you say? You know this?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So this is going to continue to heat up, you know.
I think President Trump is looking at this. Hey, the
election was stolen from me in twenty twenty. He believes that.
He said that over and over again. I don't know
if it's a dominion issue. I think there was definitely
some changes in voter laws in certain states that were
very advantageous to Republicans, and Democrats took advantage of that.
I don't know the true answer here on any of this,
(05:56):
and I don't know that any of us ever will,
but I do know that there are some people that
were very closely affiliated with the incident that happened here
in Colorado, that being Dan Rubinstein and some of the
clerks and recorders in this state. And so we're going
to hear from Dan Rubinstein, ur Stein, and Carly Kappas
in this next few bits. And I think I want
(06:17):
to go ahead and take a break so we can
get as much time as we can with Dan Rubinstein,
we'll cut away stick with us. When we come back,
we'll have the twenty first district attorney on to tell
us exactly why he went as hard as he did
after Tina Peters. You listen to Dan Capless Show here
on six point thirty k HOW with well Keunty Sheriff
Steve Rams.
Speaker 9 (06:40):
And now back to the Dan Kaplass Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Capless Show here with Well County Sheriff Steve Riams as
your guest host today, and I'm going to get right
to our next guest. It's Dan Rubinstein from the twenty
first Judicial District over in Mesa County.
Speaker 10 (06:54):
Dan, how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 12 (06:56):
Doing well? Thank you?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I'm doing great, Hey, thanks for coming on the show.
You know, as a person who works in law enforcement,
much like yourself, sometimes you prosecute a case, or you
arrest someone on a case, and once that case is done,
you just want it to go away and so you
can focus on the next thing. And some of them
just don't do that. And I assume you probably look
at this case as one of those. Is that fair
to say?
Speaker 12 (07:19):
Certainly?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I mean, in this complex world, a lot of our
more serious cases of homicide cases that don't really ever
go away either, but this one certainly is more prevalent
in the media, and really it's a sort of a
daily task to try to address the issues that keep
coming up.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so, when you became the DA over in the
twenty first Judicial District, I have to assume this isn't
a case you ever thought you'd be prosecuting for a
whole litany of reasons. But election law is not something
that normally gets this controversial. When this case was presented
to you, what was your first take at it?
Speaker 7 (07:51):
Yeah, So, interestingly, election crimes in Colorado are investigated and
prosecuted right the District Attorney's office. Unlike really every other
type of crime where the crime occurs and law enforcement
agencies investigated prosecuted. We investigated and present it as you described.
So really, this wasn't presented to me like the normal
(08:12):
sort of cases where it was actually my own DA investigators.
I actually got a personal phone call from the number
two in the Secretary of State's office letting me know
that our security codes to our election computers were out
on the internet and that they were sending a team
over here to Mason County to do an investigation but
that they do strictly an administrative.
Speaker 12 (08:32):
Investigation related to whether or not.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
The machines should remain certified, and wanting to know if
we want to have our own criminal investigators there concurrently
so that we could do our own investigation.
Speaker 12 (08:42):
I of course immediately said, yeah, I'd like to have
my own.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Team there, and we did, and it took quite a
while for the investigations unfold and figure out what exactly occurred.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So in this process, I won't ask you to outline
the entire case because I know it's very complex. But
while you're going through this, does it become glaringly clear
that Tina is a loan actor or does it appear
that there are several co conspirators around her and she's
just the person who was most negligent or most guilty.
(09:13):
Can you at least give a flavor for what that is.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
Yeah, So the sort of thumbnail sketch of what the
crimes were that were committed in order to do what
she was trying to do is she had stolen some identity,
had stolen the identity of a local computer expert for
purposes of giving his credentials to another computer expert that
(09:38):
was going to get in there during a software upgrade
and make copies of the image, observe all those things
that were happening during the software upgrade, and so it
became glaringly obvious that there were a lot of other
people that were involved. What made this so aggravated was
that the person who we elected to protect the integrity
(10:01):
of our elections was the clerk and recorder who was
the one who actually filmed the pass codes and gave
them to somebody else. Okay, And what's frustrating is she
will consistently tell people that this was necessary for her
to protect election records, when in reality, not a single
crime had to be committed in order for her to
make a before and after image of the computer system.
(10:22):
She did all of this because she wanted to have
somebody else observed this software upgrade, not because she was
trying to get a before and after image. She actually
took the before image on a Sunday with the guy
at the office when nobody else was there, and she
took the after image after the people from the Secretary
of State's office left. So all of the crimes she
committed really had absolutely nothing to do with her efforts
(10:45):
to preserve or gather election records.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So Man's it's kind of mind blowing. To be honest
with you. Do you think she came up with this
thought process all on her own or do you think
there was someone motive evading her from Afar to make
these efforts, you know, to bring in someone else to
make this false identity as you've said, Was she the
(11:09):
mastermind of this or do you know?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I do not believe she was the mastermind of it.
There were quite a few others, and I had a
lot of discussions with my prosecution team as to exactly
how to handle that, because I didn't really feel like
it was on the responsibility of the Mesa County citizens
to deal with the extremely expensive and heavily litigated litigation
(11:34):
that was going to occur to charge all these other
people who weren't even from Colorado, okay. And so you know,
there was a joint parallel investigation with the FBI going
on in the US Attorney's office, and I think they
were actually getting quite close to charging the several other
actors into federal court when the administrations changed and the
(11:55):
plug got pulled on their federal side of it.
Speaker 10 (11:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So that's what that leads me to my next question
of why the decision to charge in state court versus
federal court. You partially answered that you.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
Well, yeah, let me let me elaborate on that a
little bit.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
See, this is definitely a state matter as far as
what Miss Peters did as a county elected official. The
victims of this crime were State of Colorado employees, Masa
County employees, a Masa County citizen who they impersonated, and
then the Mesa County taxpayers, who at the end of
(12:33):
all of this are out about two point two million
dollars because of her ear legal actions. So this is
really a completely state only matter and not a federal matter.
There are some federal offenses that occurred with related to
the theft of trade secrets of the dominion voting machines,
but we did not file any of those. My understanding
(12:55):
is that the Feds were considering filing those. There was
also some federal crimes that were commit because others crossed
state lines.
Speaker 12 (13:02):
To come here to do some of these things.
Speaker 7 (13:04):
But the conduct that Ms Peters was charged with and
convicted of in state court were very much state matters
and state.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Concern Okay, So these other actors that you say were
involved in this situation could potentially face federal federal charges.
Is there a statute of limitations on that? Is that
could that be reinvestigated other under a different administration? Are
they scott free at this point? I mean, can you do?
Speaker 10 (13:28):
You know?
Speaker 7 (13:29):
Yeah? So my understanding, and I'm not a federal prosecute no,
I understand that various points been sworn in as especially
a USA, but my understanding is that they are. There's
a five year statue limitations in federal court for those crimes.
The data violation on them was in April and May
of twenty twenty one, Okay, so they would have a
(13:52):
very short period of time and it would all be
under this administration. Under state law, the charges that I
could have filed for these people, who again I don't
really think really it falls on Mason County to be
prosecuting these other actors who would have gone anywhere in
the country to do this. It just happened to occur
in Masa County. They're able to convince our clerk and
recorder to do this stuff. But we have a three
(14:14):
year statuanization. So there's scott free as far as state charges.
Speaker 10 (14:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So let's shift gears just a little bit. So, our
President Donald Trump has obviously been a supporter of Tina Peters.
He's put out multiple tweets saying that she should be
released from prison. Doesn't believe it seems as if he
doesn't believe she's done anything wrong. And you, in conjunction
with the Attorney General, which is kind of a different combination,
(14:39):
put together a letter and put that out to the
press saying, in knowing certain terms, should Tina Peters be
released from custody to federal prison for I'll let you
kind of summarize the letter, but what is your biggest
concern there with Donald Trump wanting to move Tina Peters
to federal custody?
Speaker 7 (15:00):
So first, let me explain what the reason why it
came from both myself and Attorney General Wiser. The AG's
office has concurrent jurisdiction to investigate election crimes. None of
the crimes that Miss Peters was charged with were actually
election crimes. But he did contact me at the point
that we were investigating this and said, do you think
(15:20):
this should come for me? And I said no, because
it's really mostly not election crimes that we're looking at.
She actually I should back that up a little bit.
She actually was charged with a misdemeanor that was an
election crime, none of the felties were. But I did
tell him I really could use some help. This is
not my area of expertise. My area of expertise is
murders and sexophones and residential burglaries and all the traditional
(15:41):
things people think of in criminal court. So he asked
what I needed, and he ended up lending me two
of his top prosecutors.
Speaker 12 (15:49):
Let me pick them. There are people I've been working
with for more.
Speaker 7 (15:51):
Than twenty years, and to investigators to help with the investigation.
So it really was under my authority, but with a
lot of assistance from the General's Office, who were acting
at my direction. So the letter came from both of us.
And what my concern is is, I think I have
the general sense that this is more of a Republican
philosophy than the Democrat's philosophy. But I very much believe
(16:14):
in limited federal government. There is a limited number of
federal crimes. They have limited authority to prosecute these cases.
In general, they should have limited authority and a lot
of power and authorities reserved to states to handle state matters.
And this is one hundred percent a state matter. She
might have had some goal in election integrity that has
(16:35):
both state and federal consequences, But as I said earlier,
none of the crimes she committed were necessary for her
to make them before and after image. All of those
crimes were independent and related to state victims. And I
think it sets I think it would set us up
for a constitutional crisis if the federal government could just
decide they didn't like how a state in its own
state sovereignty handle the matter, and just swooped in and
(16:57):
started taking our prisoners away from us.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We're limited on time, But I want to follow I
want to finish with this question. I know you don't
sentence an inmate. Are sentence a person to a term
in prison? The judge makes that decision. Do you agree
with the nine years in prison?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Yeah, so, to be technically accurate, she got eight and
a quarter years in prison.
Speaker 12 (17:19):
And six months in county jail.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
She will she's she will be parole eligible in January
of twenty twenty eight. Okay, so she will have served
about a little over three years. Do I believe that
what she did warrants a three year sentence? I do.
And honestly, it goes way beyond this.
Speaker 12 (17:40):
I mean, for anybody who's been following this.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
Peter's case, she was disregarding court orders. She was on
video at a bagel shop kicking cops so that she
wouldn't have to comply with court orders.
Speaker 12 (17:51):
She to this day.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
Still does not think she did anything wrong, despite her
the county.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We've got a heart break here, Dan. I appreciate your
time on the show. We've got to make this commercial
because you're listening to Dan Kaplis's show on six point.
Speaker 9 (18:04):
Thirty KO, you're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Penny Sheriff Steve Raims as your guest host. In our
last segment, we had Dan Rubinstein on from the Mason
County side of the state twenty first Judicial District Attorney,
and he was given his opinion on the prosecution of
Tina Peters and why he's against Tina being transferred to
federal custody. And I want to go to another person
(18:36):
who has been in this argument for a while, and
that's the Weld County Clerk and Recorder, Carly Kompass. Carly,
how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 13 (18:44):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 14 (18:45):
Srif are you.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm doing well, Carly. I know that you're heavily involved
in the Clerk's Association. I don't know exactly where your
positioning is in that group right now, but your group
authored a letter that you guys sent to Governor Polis.
So let's you take it from there as to why
the Clerk's Association sent that letter and kind of what
(19:06):
your affiliation is in that group.
Speaker 14 (19:10):
Yes, I am currently the president elect of the Colorado
kunt of Clerks Association. So next year or actually a
little over a month, I will take over as the
president's currently our president Cheley Johnson from Jackson County, and
so that is what my current role is with the association.
And essentially we sent this letter to the governor in
(19:33):
essence to please for accountability, protection of election officials, and
respect for Colorado's judicial process, you know, really trying to
make him understand that, if you know, we're wanting him
to defend integrity and courage and the rule of law.
A lot of us Clerksie, you know, personally, there's been
a lot of calls between you and I over the
years of talking about the different threats and harassments and
(19:56):
emails and communications that I have received, and especially after
August twenty twenty one, when it was known what Tina
had done, that's definitely elevated. And so a lot of
us have been on my opinion, the right side of history,
trying to educate people about our elections and the proper
(20:17):
way Tina could have gone about brittaining the records that
she was after my former colleague Angela Myers and Lamer
County did it the correct way in the same year.
So we have abilities to do that lawfully, and unfortunately
Tina chose not to.
Speaker 10 (20:35):
So we have Carly.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Kapas, the Well County Clerk and Recorder on making some
comments about the letter that was sent to Governor Polis.
And I know that your group felt it was important
to make your opinion known to Governor Polis that hey,
you didn't want to see Miss Peters transferred to federal custody.
Do you think did your group think that that was
a legitimate concern that that transfer may happen? And do
(20:58):
you still believe that that may happen?
Speaker 14 (21:02):
So, just from the information that we had been given,
we did have legitimate concerns that this was on the
table for the governor Obviously, one of our biggest requests
in the letter was to get a meeting with Governor Polis,
and we were actually successful in getting that this past Monday.
So we do want to, you know, say, you know,
(21:24):
they thank you for taking this time to meet with
some of US clerks. And he did assure us at
this time that she is going to treat Tina the same,
so she's not going to have different treatments than any
other prisoner, and he nor the DUC have any plans
to make that transfer because she essentially explained to us
that the state is one that makes request the federal
(21:46):
government to take prisoners, not the other way around, and
that they're going to follow their normal protocols and procedures
in this manner.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
So you and I have talked about, you know, this process,
because I don't understand, you know, how your your office
works when it comes to documenting elections and all that
kind of stuff. That's your expertise, not mine. But one
of the questions I've had for you in the past
was along the same lines of what I asked the
district attorney. Do you think that eight and a quarter
(22:13):
years or nine years as it's been called in prison
was justified. Do you think that was too stiff of
a sentence? I mean, do you have an opinion on that?
Speaker 14 (22:24):
I mean, my own personal opinion is I believe that
she earned every single minute and seconds that she is
going to be serving just due to the fact that
she made these decisions. And me and my fellow vipers
and clerks across the state, and frankly, election officials across
the nation are the ones that are actually having to
deal with her fallout essentially of what her decisions were
(22:48):
for her own county. We have all felt that impact,
not only in a professional level, but also in personal levels.
And that's pieces of my life that I will now
not be able to in the normal fashion. And a
lot of other clerks across the state and elections is
across the nation and have a sounding impacts of just
(23:10):
due to her opinion. So for me, I do believe
that she earned every single second a minute that she
got from the judge.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Sure, having said all that, you know, you've alluded to
some of the impacts that her decision has made on
the decisions that she has made have impacted other clerks.
Can you can you be a little specific? Do you
do you want to share that information with this You
and I have talked about it in private, and if
you don't want to talk about it on the radio,
I understand, But I know you've you've had some some
(23:39):
serious concerns that have popped up after that. The listening
audience would probably not I mean they quite honestly, they
might not even believe some of the stuff that that.
Speaker 14 (23:49):
You've been you faced, Yeah, and I definitely know that
there's been some questions more recently about you know, if
what I and others have faced have actually been legit
really tie it to MS theaters, and I mean I
can slat out say yes they have when they have
her name in an email that they're sending to me,
and they're wanting to say, you know, if I don't
(24:10):
do what she did, or if I don't support what
she has done, you know, they're going to come to
my office, drag me out and tar and feather me
in the parking lot. It's a good thing I look
at in feathers, but I really don't like the card
part about us.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
I feel it.
Speaker 14 (24:25):
And then there's also just other areas. Some other clerks
have had to change how they drive to and firmwork
and myself included, you know, not be in our offices
at the same consistent times and don't go to the
same grocery stores because they have been legitimate and confirmed.
You know, I've had multiple conversations with well he still
(24:45):
is our FBI region person, and just even a couple
of weekends ago with having alerts on from people posting
things on the dark web about squatting ces to my residency.
And that's you know why you and I had another
conversation again until late on Sunday evening and you know,
flagging that as the concerned once again for myself.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Well, I know you're about to go into your last
year as the clerk and recorder, your term limited, much
like I am. You know, having said all that you've
done twelve you will have done twelve years as a
clerk and recorder in Weld County. You got elected this
at the start of your term, the same time I did.
If you had it all to do over again, would
you still enter into this crazy environment knowing that you're
(25:36):
going to face some of the stuff that you've seen
over the last few years.
Speaker 14 (25:41):
That's a great question. If you would have told me
as a twenty eight year old this is what I'd
been facing during two of my terms. Essentially, I probably
would have never have guessed that, even though I've been
a elections for twenty one years now, this is definitely
not an environment that any of us would have projected
we would have been in. However, I do believe that,
you know, God puts you in your position at the
(26:04):
right time for reasons unbeknownst to us, and I think
I was put in this position during this time to
be the strong voice for defending our elections. You're in Colorado,
Indulph is the nation, and I'm going to continue to
do that through my last you know a little over
three in our sixty five years that you and I
are in our respective positions, and I fullheartily believe that,
(26:26):
and so I would definitely, even knowing what we've had
to endure since August of twenty twenty one, do to
miss Peter's actions, I would do it again because I
do believe that you are.
Speaker 13 (26:37):
Put in this timeframe to be the leader that you
need to be, and I would do it all over again,
especially to not only defend.
Speaker 14 (26:47):
Our elections but help and support my fellows broken recorders
that are both unaffilated Democratic and Republicans.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's a fair answer. Currently, I'll end with this. You
know you've you've been in this election sphere for a
long time, and I'm going to put you on the
spot a little bit. Do you have the next chapter
of your life planned out? Or are you kind of
playing it by ear?
Speaker 14 (27:12):
I am very thankful that I have a very supportive family,
and I definitely have some considerations that I'm going to
be doing as maybe a lookout for later in twenty
twenty seven to see some announcements from me for what
I would hope to maybe potentially do if all the
cards line up in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Okay, that's fair. Well, Hey, I appreciate you being on
the show. I know this is a very controversial topic.
You've been dealing with it for years, but you're continuing
to push the effort forward as you believe it is
fit and thanks for coming on the show. That's Carly
koppas the Well County clerk and recorder. We'll cut a break,
can we come back. We got a lot of texts
to read and if we can, we'll squeeze in a
(27:52):
few phone calls as well. You're listening to the Dankapley
Show here on six point thirty k Hew.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Back to the Dankapla Show here with well can you
show if Steve Reims finishing out the show? And I
think that goodbye is exactly for me. I will be
saying goodbye for a little while until Dan has another
trial coming up.
Speaker 10 (28:19):
And I'll take that. Was that Ray, Ryan?
Speaker 7 (28:22):
Do it well?
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Line?
Speaker 11 (28:23):
It's much too late for goodbyes because here we are
the final segment. What are we going to do? You
know we're going to shed any tears here? No, guys,
don't do that, No, especially us too, Let me too.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
Oh boy? All right?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we had a lot of texts coming in because
you know, Tina Peters is non controversial. But you know,
you guys are actually pretty thoughtful with your text here.
This first one, well last one, but first one on
the wall says, I want to know why Jenna Griswold
won't turn over the voting records to the Trump administration.
If everything is on the up and up, why are
they resisting? What are they hiding?
Speaker 10 (28:58):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And I think there's like thirty six states that have
given up the information. Colorado is one of those that
hasn't you know, there's been some lawsuits filed against certain
states that haven't cooperated. I think Jenna Griswold has proven
to be one of the worst Secretary of States in
the history of Colorado. And if the end of her
(29:20):
administration is trying to defend why she won't give these
records up, so be it.
Speaker 10 (29:24):
I hope she gets.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Sued by the Trump administration to get these records, because
that is the key question. If everything's good, what are
you hiding? Yeah, I just I don't see what the
point is. It seems like that's something that should just
be done. Another text that says, well, sheriff, I'm not
sure what to really believe when it comes to Tina Peters. However,
(29:46):
she has the right to believe, rightly or wrongly, that
she didn't do anything wrong. That particular factor shouldn't play
into whether or not she should serve eight and a
quarter years in jail. And I believe that she'll serve
every minute of that sentence and not be allowed to parole.
These people are that vindictive. It says, child molesters don't
get that kind of time in this state. That's kind
of my point. I disagree with the texture. I don't
(30:09):
think there's anyone in the state of Colorado that does
all their time. In fact, when someone sentenced to life,
I'm never convinced that that's where they're going to stay,
just because of the Democrat control that is in Colorado.
Speaker 10 (30:22):
I think Tina will.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Likely get out at that first eligible parole date. If
she doesn't get out on the first eligible parole date,
potentially the second if she goes past that, I'll be shocked,
and quite honestly, that'll be it'll be a slap in
the face for those of us that are in law
enforcement that see these heinous offenders get out in such
short times and such a short amount of time when
(30:45):
someone like Tina Peters who is it's a very non
violent act. Yes, it may have huge ramifications for voter integrity,
and I don't take that lightly, but it's not a
violent crime, and no one was technically harmed by what
she did. I know, we can't say that any vote
was changed, not that I can tell that any.
Speaker 10 (31:05):
Election was overturned by her actions. And it goes to
this tax sheriff.
Speaker 11 (31:09):
It says, has there been other examples of state election
fraud that did not benefit the party intended.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
What was the prison outcome of those.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's a great question, I got it. Who knows, right?
And maybe that that stuff will continue to trickle out.
Here's Steven Littleton, retired l e O loyal listener. He
shares the same opinion that I do. I think there
are criminals in the state more deserving him nine years
in prison than as Tina Peters.
Speaker 11 (31:37):
I mean, well, Phil Wiser won't even charge until you stolen,
you know, your fourth or fifth vehicle, and then then we.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
Got to do something.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Maybe that's the way he'd look at elections too. Fourth
or fifth stolen election, then maybe we'll do something unless
it's unless it's a Republican, right, yeah, and then we're
going to go after you from the very get go.
I don't know just this. There shouldn't be a partisan
way of investigating crime. To be honest with you, I
say this all the time at I don't look at
a Democrat victim versus a Republican victim in two different ways.
(32:06):
We charge crimes equally. So if you would charge a
Republican this way for these voter issues that I expected
a Democrat would be charged the same way.
Speaker 10 (32:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
We don't know if a Democrat, you know, in this
upcoming election cycle, but would potentially say, oh, you know,
Donald Trump or whoever's following Donald Trump stole the election.
Speaker 10 (32:25):
I guess time will tell. We'll see.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Well, this texture too, this is what really sets me off. Sheriff,
and you and I were talking about this at the
end of my program, but I've spoken about this with
George Brockler as well. As he prosecutes crimes or tries
to in this state. This person says crime, child molesters
don't get that kind of time in this state, not anymore.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
No, no, they don't even typically they don't even go
to prison, not even go to prison. Yeah, they go
straight out to the street, they do some kind of
you know, halfway house or whatever.
Speaker 9 (32:51):
Unreal.
Speaker 10 (32:51):
Yeah, it is this. The criminal justice system in the
state of Colorado is broken.
Speaker 11 (32:56):
I would pose that question, maybe even to Dan Rubin,
who did this job.
Speaker 9 (33:01):
I understand that, but it will point blank, does.
Speaker 11 (33:04):
Tina Peters deserve to serve more time than a child rapist?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
No, I don't believe. I just can't get there. And
you know, I'm a rule of lag guy. That's that's
what I do. You know, if Tina's going to spend
nine years in prison, then every one of these other
guys that we arrest on very violent crimes should stay
there the entire time. Let it all be equal, let
it all work out the same. The fact that we've
(33:29):
watered down the criminal laws against some very violent stuff,
I say we. I'm not part of that crowd. The
fact that the Democrats have watered this down, it's just it's, oh,
I'm a little frustrated with it. I can only imagine,
you know, twenty eight years in law enforcement and to
watch where we've ended up.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
It's it's mind numbing. I don't know this one.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
If Tina Peters had gotten illegally behind the wheel of
a semi truck and killed a family, maybe the Tarts
would let her go. Well, only if Kim Kardashian called in.
Speaker 10 (34:03):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, you know, there's just so many of these examples.
There's you know, this one former Las Vegas Raider wide
receiver kills someone doing nineteen oh thirty five and he's
about to get out for early release. Tina Peters did
something with some voting stuff, and no one can really explain,
and she gets nine years in prison. Makes no sense
either way. I promise you the next time I'm back
(34:25):
on the show, maybe we'll look at the other side
of this, if it's still relevant. Regardless, it was a
great time filling in for Dan over the last three days.
I love the interaction with you guys, the best listeners
in talk radio. Stay tuned, listen to the next show.
Joe PAGs will be up next, but tune in tomorrow.
Who knows will be the guests at that point. Signing
off for the Dan Kaplis Show, Steve Reims, Welkin any show,
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to The Dan Caplis Show, Hour two of
two and day three of three. For me and tomorrow, Dan,
we'll be back or you'll have another guest host. I'm
not real sure, still working that out on the fly.
I'm sure there'll be something settled in the next few
hours and you'll have something different tomorrow, whatever that may be.
Speaking of something different, I said we were going to
(00:35):
go into a different topic for hour two. We're going
to break away from the governor stuff and we're going
to talk about something that's completely non controversial, and that's
the Tina Peters case. I say that tongue in cheek
because obviously that gets Republicans and Democrats alike stirred for
different reasons. And I guess the best way to kind
of explain where we're going to go with this topic
(00:57):
is by playing an audio clip. If we could Ryan
audio clip double zero.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, President Trump continues to call for former Mesa County
Clerk Tina Peters to be released from state custody into
federal custody. So far, many leaders in the states say
that they don't want to see that happen. Fox to
one political reporter Gabrielle Franklin and joining us Now Live
this evening to explain why this is Gabrielle Christine.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
The President is once again putting pressure on Colorado. A
bipartisan group of leaders is urging the governor not to
cave in.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think this is really a conversation that is being
held at the governor's office, and the governor has in
the past been a staunch supporter of Colorado's election law
and of election officials, and so we're really hoping that,
you know, he continues to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The pressure is on for Governor Jared Polis. Sunday morning,
the President took to True Social yet again to post
about Tina Peters. This time he posted free Tina Peters,
who sits in a Colorado prison, dying and old for
attempting to expose voter fraud and the rig twenty twenty
presidential election. The President originally posted something similar, less, and
(02:00):
the pushback has been coming ever.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Since, whether that's a formal request or posting on social
media or shouting from a street corner, it is never
okay for the president to think that he is above
the law, or that anybody who broke the law and
compromised her own elections and really eroded public trust.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Really just shouldn't be acceptable.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzales and clerks from all sixty
four counties across the state sent the governor letter last
week saying, in part, we asked that you decline any
request to transfer miss Peters to federal custody. Colorado's judicial
process should be respected and the sentence imposed by a
Colorado court should be carried out under Colorado's authority. Send
(02:44):
a message to all Colorado's, to the nation, and to
every public servant watching that this state does not abandon
those who do what is right. Colorado Attorney General Phil
Wiser and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein also put
out a joint letter last week asking the governor to
reject the formal request from the Federal Bureau of Prison, saying,
in part, shifting her custody to the federal government is
(03:07):
an attempt to bypass our judicial system, all to offer
a politically connected inmate the comforts of an easier sentence.
Colorado Secretary of State also weighing in.
Speaker 6 (03:17):
Trump cannot pardon Peters, and so he is trying to
bully and retally against the state.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
That's what he does.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
The governor's office says that he and the state's Department
of Corrections are reviewing the administration's requests. They also said
that the governor appreciates all the different state officials who've
been weighing in on this.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So we come back from that audio, and I think
that kind of sets the stage for where we're at.
You know, there's some argument right now about should Tina
Peters leave state custody and go back to federal custody,
should she remain where she's at. And there's you know,
there's opinions from both sides of the of the aisle,
if you will, that hey, we want to keep her
in state custody. And then there's the voters who many
(03:59):
of which said, hey, Tina did absolutely nothing wrong, her
conviction should never have happened, and she should be released
or at least transferred to federal custody so that she
can be released or pardoned by potentially President Trump, and
President Trump recently put out a tweet that let's.
Speaker 8 (04:16):
Just hear in his own voice, the sleevesbag governor of Colorado,
Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters,
who is unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do cheating
on elections, out of jail. She was convicted for trying
to stop Democrats from stealing Colorado votes in the election.
Speaker 9 (04:37):
She was preserving.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
Election records, which she was obligated to do under federal law.
She has now served more than one year in jail
and has eight years to go. On top of everything else,
she's a cancer quote survivor. This lightweight governor who's actually
quite heavy, who has allowed his state to go to
hell trendy Aragua one should be ashamed of himself.
Speaker 9 (05:02):
Free Tina.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
Thank you, President. That's actually Ryan schuling.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But he does a way better Trump impression than I do,
So thank you for reading that. That's that's quite a talent,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 11 (05:12):
It gets the gist across. I know Sean Ferish, but
he'll do an don't quit your day job, and.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
I added that part where he's not so light, he's
actually quite heavy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You know, the most accurate part of this entire tweet
published whatever is the part that says the.
Speaker 9 (05:28):
Oh yeah right loving it's all caps.
Speaker 10 (05:31):
Yes, I mean, what can you say? You know this?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So this is going to continue to heat up, you know.
I think President Trump is looking at this. Hey, the
election was stolen from me in twenty twenty. He believes that.
He said that over and over again. I don't know
if it's a dominion issue. I think there was definitely
some changes in voter laws in certain states that were
very advantageous to Republicans, and Democrats took advantage of that.
I don't know the true answer here on any of this,
(05:56):
and I don't know that any of us ever will,
but I do know that there are some people that
were very closely affiliated with the incident that happened here
in Colorado, that being Dan Rubinstein and some of the
clerks and recorders in this state. And so we're going
to hear from Dan Rubinstein, ur Stein, and Carly Kappas
in this next few bits. And I think I want
(06:17):
to go ahead and take a break so we can
get as much time as we can with Dan Rubinstein,
we'll cut away stick with us. When we come back,
we'll have the twenty first district attorney on to tell
us exactly why he went as hard as he did
after Tina Peters. You listen to Dan Capless Show here
on six point thirty k HOW with well Keunty Sheriff
Steve Rams.
Speaker 9 (06:40):
And now back to the Dan Kaplass Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Capless Show here with Well County Sheriff Steve Riams as
your guest host today, and I'm going to get right
to our next guest. It's Dan Rubinstein from the twenty
first Judicial District over in Mesa County.
Speaker 10 (06:54):
Dan, how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 12 (06:56):
Doing well? Thank you?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I'm doing great, Hey, thanks for coming on the show.
You know, as a person who works in law enforcement,
much like yourself, sometimes you prosecute a case, or you
arrest someone on a case, and once that case is done,
you just want it to go away and so you
can focus on the next thing. And some of them
just don't do that. And I assume you probably look
at this case as one of those. Is that fair
to say?
Speaker 12 (07:19):
Certainly?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I mean, in this complex world, a lot of our
more serious cases of homicide cases that don't really ever
go away either, but this one certainly is more prevalent
in the media, and really it's a sort of a
daily task to try to address the issues that keep
coming up.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so, when you became the DA over in the
twenty first Judicial District, I have to assume this isn't
a case you ever thought you'd be prosecuting for a
whole litany of reasons. But election law is not something
that normally gets this controversial. When this case was presented
to you, what was your first take at it?
Speaker 7 (07:51):
Yeah, So, interestingly, election crimes in Colorado are investigated and
prosecuted right the District Attorney's office. Unlike really every other
type of crime where the crime occurs and law enforcement
agencies investigated prosecuted. We investigated and present it as you described.
So really, this wasn't presented to me like the normal
(08:12):
sort of cases where it was actually my own DA investigators.
I actually got a personal phone call from the number
two in the Secretary of State's office letting me know
that our security codes to our election computers were out
on the internet and that they were sending a team
over here to Mason County to do an investigation but
that they do strictly an administrative.
Speaker 12 (08:32):
Investigation related to whether or not.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
The machines should remain certified, and wanting to know if
we want to have our own criminal investigators there concurrently
so that we could do our own investigation.
Speaker 12 (08:42):
I of course immediately said, yeah, I'd like to have
my own.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Team there, and we did, and it took quite a
while for the investigations unfold and figure out what exactly occurred.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So in this process, I won't ask you to outline
the entire case because I know it's very complex. But
while you're going through this, does it become glaringly clear
that Tina is a loan actor or does it appear
that there are several co conspirators around her and she's
just the person who was most negligent or most guilty.
(09:13):
Can you at least give a flavor for what that is.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
Yeah, So the sort of thumbnail sketch of what the
crimes were that were committed in order to do what
she was trying to do is she had stolen some identity,
had stolen the identity of a local computer expert for
purposes of giving his credentials to another computer expert that
(09:38):
was going to get in there during a software upgrade
and make copies of the image, observe all those things
that were happening during the software upgrade, and so it
became glaringly obvious that there were a lot of other
people that were involved. What made this so aggravated was
that the person who we elected to protect the integrity
(10:01):
of our elections was the clerk and recorder who was
the one who actually filmed the pass codes and gave
them to somebody else. Okay, And what's frustrating is she
will consistently tell people that this was necessary for her
to protect election records, when in reality, not a single
crime had to be committed in order for her to
make a before and after image of the computer system.
(10:22):
She did all of this because she wanted to have
somebody else observed this software upgrade, not because she was
trying to get a before and after image. She actually
took the before image on a Sunday with the guy
at the office when nobody else was there, and she
took the after image after the people from the Secretary
of State's office left. So all of the crimes she
committed really had absolutely nothing to do with her efforts
(10:45):
to preserve or gather election records.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So Man's it's kind of mind blowing. To be honest
with you. Do you think she came up with this
thought process all on her own or do you think
there was someone motive evading her from Afar to make
these efforts, you know, to bring in someone else to
make this false identity as you've said, Was she the
(11:09):
mastermind of this or do you know?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I do not believe she was the mastermind of it.
There were quite a few others, and I had a
lot of discussions with my prosecution team as to exactly
how to handle that, because I didn't really feel like
it was on the responsibility of the Mesa County citizens
to deal with the extremely expensive and heavily litigated litigation
(11:34):
that was going to occur to charge all these other
people who weren't even from Colorado, okay. And so you know,
there was a joint parallel investigation with the FBI going
on in the US Attorney's office, and I think they
were actually getting quite close to charging the several other
actors into federal court when the administrations changed and the
(11:55):
plug got pulled on their federal side of it.
Speaker 10 (11:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So that's what that leads me to my next question
of why the decision to charge in state court versus
federal court. You partially answered that you.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
Well, yeah, let me let me elaborate on that a
little bit.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
See, this is definitely a state matter as far as
what Miss Peters did as a county elected official. The
victims of this crime were State of Colorado employees, Masa
County employees, a Masa County citizen who they impersonated, and
then the Mesa County taxpayers, who at the end of
(12:33):
all of this are out about two point two million
dollars because of her ear legal actions. So this is
really a completely state only matter and not a federal matter.
There are some federal offenses that occurred with related to
the theft of trade secrets of the dominion voting machines,
but we did not file any of those. My understanding
(12:55):
is that the Feds were considering filing those. There was
also some federal crimes that were commit because others crossed
state lines.
Speaker 12 (13:02):
To come here to do some of these things.
Speaker 7 (13:04):
But the conduct that Ms Peters was charged with and
convicted of in state court were very much state matters
and state.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Concern Okay, So these other actors that you say were
involved in this situation could potentially face federal federal charges.
Is there a statute of limitations on that? Is that
could that be reinvestigated other under a different administration? Are
they scott free at this point? I mean, can you do?
Speaker 10 (13:28):
You know?
Speaker 7 (13:29):
Yeah? So my understanding, and I'm not a federal prosecute no,
I understand that various points been sworn in as especially
a USA, but my understanding is that they are. There's
a five year statue limitations in federal court for those crimes.
The data violation on them was in April and May
of twenty twenty one, Okay, so they would have a
(13:52):
very short period of time and it would all be
under this administration. Under state law, the charges that I
could have filed for these people, who again I don't
really think really it falls on Mason County to be
prosecuting these other actors who would have gone anywhere in
the country to do this. It just happened to occur
in Masa County. They're able to convince our clerk and
recorder to do this stuff. But we have a three
(14:14):
year statuanization. So there's scott free as far as state charges.
Speaker 10 (14:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So let's shift gears just a little bit. So, our
President Donald Trump has obviously been a supporter of Tina Peters.
He's put out multiple tweets saying that she should be
released from prison. Doesn't believe it seems as if he
doesn't believe she's done anything wrong. And you, in conjunction
with the Attorney General, which is kind of a different combination,
(14:39):
put together a letter and put that out to the
press saying, in knowing certain terms, should Tina Peters be
released from custody to federal prison for I'll let you
kind of summarize the letter, but what is your biggest
concern there with Donald Trump wanting to move Tina Peters
to federal custody?
Speaker 7 (15:00):
So first, let me explain what the reason why it
came from both myself and Attorney General Wiser. The AG's
office has concurrent jurisdiction to investigate election crimes. None of
the crimes that Miss Peters was charged with were actually
election crimes. But he did contact me at the point
that we were investigating this and said, do you think
(15:20):
this should come for me? And I said no, because
it's really mostly not election crimes that we're looking at.
She actually I should back that up a little bit.
She actually was charged with a misdemeanor that was an
election crime, none of the felties were. But I did
tell him I really could use some help. This is
not my area of expertise. My area of expertise is
murders and sexophones and residential burglaries and all the traditional
(15:41):
things people think of in criminal court. So he asked
what I needed, and he ended up lending me two
of his top prosecutors.
Speaker 12 (15:49):
Let me pick them. There are people I've been working
with for more.
Speaker 7 (15:51):
Than twenty years, and to investigators to help with the investigation.
So it really was under my authority, but with a
lot of assistance from the General's Office, who were acting
at my direction. So the letter came from both of us.
And what my concern is is, I think I have
the general sense that this is more of a Republican
philosophy than the Democrat's philosophy. But I very much believe
(16:14):
in limited federal government. There is a limited number of
federal crimes. They have limited authority to prosecute these cases.
In general, they should have limited authority and a lot
of power and authorities reserved to states to handle state matters.
And this is one hundred percent a state matter. She
might have had some goal in election integrity that has
(16:35):
both state and federal consequences, But as I said earlier,
none of the crimes she committed were necessary for her
to make them before and after image. All of those
crimes were independent and related to state victims. And I
think it sets I think it would set us up
for a constitutional crisis if the federal government could just
decide they didn't like how a state in its own
state sovereignty handle the matter, and just swooped in and
(16:57):
started taking our prisoners away from us.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We're limited on time, But I want to follow I
want to finish with this question. I know you don't
sentence an inmate. Are sentence a person to a term
in prison? The judge makes that decision. Do you agree
with the nine years in prison?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Yeah, so, to be technically accurate, she got eight and
a quarter years in prison.
Speaker 12 (17:19):
And six months in county jail.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
She will she's she will be parole eligible in January
of twenty twenty eight. Okay, so she will have served
about a little over three years. Do I believe that
what she did warrants a three year sentence? I do.
And honestly, it goes way beyond this.
Speaker 12 (17:40):
I mean, for anybody who's been following this.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
Peter's case, she was disregarding court orders. She was on
video at a bagel shop kicking cops so that she
wouldn't have to comply with court orders.
Speaker 12 (17:51):
She to this day.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
Still does not think she did anything wrong, despite her
the county.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We've got a heart break here, Dan. I appreciate your
time on the show. We've got to make this commercial
because you're listening to Dan Kaplis's show on six point.
Speaker 9 (18:04):
Thirty KO, you're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Penny Sheriff Steve Raims as your guest host. In our
last segment, we had Dan Rubinstein on from the Mason
County side of the state twenty first Judicial District Attorney,
and he was given his opinion on the prosecution of
Tina Peters and why he's against Tina being transferred to
federal custody. And I want to go to another person
(18:36):
who has been in this argument for a while, and
that's the Weld County Clerk and Recorder, Carly Kompass. Carly,
how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 13 (18:44):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 14 (18:45):
Srif are you.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm doing well, Carly. I know that you're heavily involved
in the Clerk's Association. I don't know exactly where your
positioning is in that group right now, but your group
authored a letter that you guys sent to Governor Polis.
So let's you take it from there as to why
the Clerk's Association sent that letter and kind of what
(19:06):
your affiliation is in that group.
Speaker 14 (19:10):
Yes, I am currently the president elect of the Colorado
kunt of Clerks Association. So next year or actually a
little over a month, I will take over as the
president's currently our president Cheley Johnson from Jackson County, and
so that is what my current role is with the association.
And essentially we sent this letter to the governor in
(19:33):
essence to please for accountability, protection of election officials, and
respect for Colorado's judicial process, you know, really trying to
make him understand that, if you know, we're wanting him
to defend integrity and courage and the rule of law.
A lot of us Clerksie, you know, personally, there's been
a lot of calls between you and I over the
years of talking about the different threats and harassments and
(19:56):
emails and communications that I have received, and especially after
August twenty twenty one, when it was known what Tina
had done, that's definitely elevated. And so a lot of
us have been on my opinion, the right side of history,
trying to educate people about our elections and the proper
(20:17):
way Tina could have gone about brittaining the records that
she was after my former colleague Angela Myers and Lamer
County did it the correct way in the same year.
So we have abilities to do that lawfully, and unfortunately
Tina chose not to.
Speaker 10 (20:35):
So we have Carly.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Kapas, the Well County Clerk and Recorder on making some
comments about the letter that was sent to Governor Polis.
And I know that your group felt it was important
to make your opinion known to Governor Polis that hey,
you didn't want to see Miss Peters transferred to federal custody.
Do you think did your group think that that was
a legitimate concern that that transfer may happen? And do
(20:58):
you still believe that that may happen?
Speaker 14 (21:02):
So, just from the information that we had been given,
we did have legitimate concerns that this was on the
table for the governor Obviously, one of our biggest requests
in the letter was to get a meeting with Governor Polis,
and we were actually successful in getting that this past Monday.
So we do want to, you know, say, you know,
(21:24):
they thank you for taking this time to meet with
some of US clerks. And he did assure us at
this time that she is going to treat Tina the same,
so she's not going to have different treatments than any
other prisoner, and he nor the DUC have any plans
to make that transfer because she essentially explained to us
that the state is one that makes request the federal
(21:46):
government to take prisoners, not the other way around, and
that they're going to follow their normal protocols and procedures
in this manner.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
So you and I have talked about, you know, this process,
because I don't understand, you know, how your your office
works when it comes to documenting elections and all that
kind of stuff. That's your expertise, not mine. But one
of the questions I've had for you in the past
was along the same lines of what I asked the
district attorney. Do you think that eight and a quarter
(22:13):
years or nine years as it's been called in prison
was justified. Do you think that was too stiff of
a sentence? I mean, do you have an opinion on that?
Speaker 14 (22:24):
I mean, my own personal opinion is I believe that
she earned every single minute and seconds that she is
going to be serving just due to the fact that
she made these decisions. And me and my fellow vipers
and clerks across the state, and frankly, election officials across
the nation are the ones that are actually having to
deal with her fallout essentially of what her decisions were
(22:48):
for her own county. We have all felt that impact,
not only in a professional level, but also in personal levels.
And that's pieces of my life that I will now
not be able to in the normal fashion. And a
lot of other clerks across the state and elections is
across the nation and have a sounding impacts of just
(23:10):
due to her opinion. So for me, I do believe
that she earned every single second a minute that she
got from the judge.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Sure, having said all that, you know, you've alluded to
some of the impacts that her decision has made on
the decisions that she has made have impacted other clerks.
Can you can you be a little specific? Do you
do you want to share that information with this You
and I have talked about it in private, and if
you don't want to talk about it on the radio,
I understand, But I know you've you've had some some
(23:39):
serious concerns that have popped up after that. The listening
audience would probably not I mean they quite honestly, they
might not even believe some of the stuff that that.
Speaker 14 (23:49):
You've been you faced, Yeah, and I definitely know that
there's been some questions more recently about you know, if
what I and others have faced have actually been legit
really tie it to MS theaters, and I mean I
can slat out say yes they have when they have
her name in an email that they're sending to me,
and they're wanting to say, you know, if I don't
(24:10):
do what she did, or if I don't support what
she has done, you know, they're going to come to
my office, drag me out and tar and feather me
in the parking lot. It's a good thing I look
at in feathers, but I really don't like the card
part about us.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
I feel it.
Speaker 14 (24:25):
And then there's also just other areas. Some other clerks
have had to change how they drive to and firmwork
and myself included, you know, not be in our offices
at the same consistent times and don't go to the
same grocery stores because they have been legitimate and confirmed.
You know, I've had multiple conversations with well he still
(24:45):
is our FBI region person, and just even a couple
of weekends ago with having alerts on from people posting
things on the dark web about squatting ces to my residency.
And that's you know why you and I had another
conversation again until late on Sunday evening and you know,
flagging that as the concerned once again for myself.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Well, I know you're about to go into your last
year as the clerk and recorder, your term limited, much
like I am. You know, having said all that you've
done twelve you will have done twelve years as a
clerk and recorder in Weld County. You got elected this
at the start of your term, the same time I did.
If you had it all to do over again, would
you still enter into this crazy environment knowing that you're
(25:36):
going to face some of the stuff that you've seen
over the last few years.
Speaker 14 (25:41):
That's a great question. If you would have told me
as a twenty eight year old this is what I'd
been facing during two of my terms. Essentially, I probably
would have never have guessed that, even though I've been
a elections for twenty one years now, this is definitely
not an environment that any of us would have projected
we would have been in. However, I do believe that,
you know, God puts you in your position at the
(26:04):
right time for reasons unbeknownst to us, and I think
I was put in this position during this time to
be the strong voice for defending our elections. You're in Colorado,
Indulph is the nation, and I'm going to continue to
do that through my last you know a little over
three in our sixty five years that you and I
are in our respective positions, and I fullheartily believe that,
(26:26):
and so I would definitely, even knowing what we've had
to endure since August of twenty twenty one, do to
miss Peter's actions, I would do it again because I
do believe that you are.
Speaker 13 (26:37):
Put in this timeframe to be the leader that you
need to be, and I would do it all over again,
especially to not only defend.
Speaker 14 (26:47):
Our elections but help and support my fellows broken recorders
that are both unaffilated Democratic and Republicans.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's a fair answer. Currently, I'll end with this. You
know you've you've been in this election sphere for a
long time, and I'm going to put you on the
spot a little bit. Do you have the next chapter
of your life planned out? Or are you kind of
playing it by ear?
Speaker 14 (27:12):
I am very thankful that I have a very supportive family,
and I definitely have some considerations that I'm going to
be doing as maybe a lookout for later in twenty
twenty seven to see some announcements from me for what
I would hope to maybe potentially do if all the
cards line up in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Okay, that's fair. Well, Hey, I appreciate you being on
the show. I know this is a very controversial topic.
You've been dealing with it for years, but you're continuing
to push the effort forward as you believe it is
fit and thanks for coming on the show. That's Carly
koppas the Well County clerk and recorder. We'll cut a break,
can we come back. We got a lot of texts
to read and if we can, we'll squeeze in a
(27:52):
few phone calls as well. You're listening to the Dankapley
Show here on six point thirty k Hew.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Back to the Dankapla Show here with well can you
show if Steve Reims finishing out the show? And I
think that goodbye is exactly for me. I will be
saying goodbye for a little while until Dan has another
trial coming up.
Speaker 10 (28:19):
And I'll take that. Was that Ray, Ryan?
Speaker 7 (28:22):
Do it well?
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Line?
Speaker 11 (28:23):
It's much too late for goodbyes because here we are
the final segment. What are we going to do? You
know we're going to shed any tears here? No, guys,
don't do that, No, especially us too, Let me too.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
Oh boy? All right?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we had a lot of texts coming in because
you know, Tina Peters is non controversial. But you know,
you guys are actually pretty thoughtful with your text here.
This first one, well last one, but first one on
the wall says, I want to know why Jenna Griswold
won't turn over the voting records to the Trump administration.
If everything is on the up and up, why are
they resisting? What are they hiding?
Speaker 10 (28:58):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And I think there's like thirty six states that have
given up the information. Colorado is one of those that
hasn't you know, there's been some lawsuits filed against certain
states that haven't cooperated. I think Jenna Griswold has proven
to be one of the worst Secretary of States in
the history of Colorado. And if the end of her
(29:20):
administration is trying to defend why she won't give these
records up, so be it.
Speaker 10 (29:24):
I hope she gets.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Sued by the Trump administration to get these records, because
that is the key question. If everything's good, what are
you hiding? Yeah, I just I don't see what the
point is. It seems like that's something that should just
be done. Another text that says, well, sheriff, I'm not
sure what to really believe when it comes to Tina Peters. However,
(29:46):
she has the right to believe, rightly or wrongly, that
she didn't do anything wrong. That particular factor shouldn't play
into whether or not she should serve eight and a
quarter years in jail. And I believe that she'll serve
every minute of that sentence and not be allowed to parole.
These people are that vindictive. It says, child molesters don't
get that kind of time in this state. That's kind
of my point. I disagree with the texture. I don't
(30:09):
think there's anyone in the state of Colorado that does
all their time. In fact, when someone sentenced to life,
I'm never convinced that that's where they're going to stay,
just because of the Democrat control that is in Colorado.
Speaker 10 (30:22):
I think Tina will.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Likely get out at that first eligible parole date. If
she doesn't get out on the first eligible parole date,
potentially the second if she goes past that, I'll be shocked,
and quite honestly, that'll be it'll be a slap in
the face for those of us that are in law
enforcement that see these heinous offenders get out in such
short times and such a short amount of time when
(30:45):
someone like Tina Peters who is it's a very non
violent act. Yes, it may have huge ramifications for voter integrity,
and I don't take that lightly, but it's not a
violent crime, and no one was technically harmed by what
she did. I know, we can't say that any vote
was changed, not that I can tell that any.
Speaker 10 (31:05):
Election was overturned by her actions. And it goes to
this tax sheriff.
Speaker 11 (31:09):
It says, has there been other examples of state election
fraud that did not benefit the party intended.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
What was the prison outcome of those.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's a great question, I got it. Who knows, right?
And maybe that that stuff will continue to trickle out.
Here's Steven Littleton, retired l e O loyal listener. He
shares the same opinion that I do. I think there
are criminals in the state more deserving him nine years
in prison than as Tina Peters.
Speaker 11 (31:37):
I mean, well, Phil Wiser won't even charge until you stolen,
you know, your fourth or fifth vehicle, and then then we.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
Got to do something.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Maybe that's the way he'd look at elections too. Fourth
or fifth stolen election, then maybe we'll do something unless
it's unless it's a Republican, right, yeah, and then we're
going to go after you from the very get go.
I don't know just this. There shouldn't be a partisan
way of investigating crime. To be honest with you, I
say this all the time at I don't look at
a Democrat victim versus a Republican victim in two different ways.
(32:06):
We charge crimes equally. So if you would charge a
Republican this way for these voter issues that I expected
a Democrat would be charged the same way.
Speaker 10 (32:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
We don't know if a Democrat, you know, in this
upcoming election cycle, but would potentially say, oh, you know,
Donald Trump or whoever's following Donald Trump stole the election.
Speaker 10 (32:25):
I guess time will tell. We'll see.
Speaker 11 (32:26):
Well, this texture too, this is what really sets me off. Sheriff,
and you and I were talking about this at the
end of my program, but I've spoken about this with
George Brockler as well. As he prosecutes crimes or tries
to in this state. This person says crime, child molesters
don't get that kind of time in this state, not anymore.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
No, no, they don't even typically they don't even go
to prison, not even go to prison. Yeah, they go
straight out to the street, they do some kind of
you know, halfway house or whatever.
Speaker 9 (32:51):
Unreal.
Speaker 10 (32:51):
Yeah, it is this. The criminal justice system in the
state of Colorado is broken.
Speaker 11 (32:56):
I would pose that question, maybe even to Dan Rubin,
who did this job.
Speaker 9 (33:01):
I understand that, but it will point blank, does.
Speaker 11 (33:04):
Tina Peters deserve to serve more time than a child rapist?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
No, I don't believe. I just can't get there. And
you know, I'm a rule of lag guy. That's that's
what I do. You know, if Tina's going to spend
nine years in prison, then every one of these other
guys that we arrest on very violent crimes should stay
there the entire time. Let it all be equal, let
it all work out the same. The fact that we've
(33:29):
watered down the criminal laws against some very violent stuff,
I say we. I'm not part of that crowd. The
fact that the Democrats have watered this down, it's just it's, oh,
I'm a little frustrated with it. I can only imagine,
you know, twenty eight years in law enforcement and to
watch where we've ended up.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
It's it's mind numbing. I don't know this one.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
If Tina Peters had gotten illegally behind the wheel of
a semi truck and killed a family, maybe the Tarts
would let her go. Well, only if Kim Kardashian called in.
Speaker 10 (34:03):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, you know, there's just so many of these examples.
There's you know, this one former Las Vegas Raider wide
receiver kills someone doing nineteen oh thirty five and he's
about to get out for early release. Tina Peters did
something with some voting stuff, and no one can really explain,
and she gets nine years in prison. Makes no sense
either way. I promise you the next time I'm back
(34:25):
on the show, maybe we'll look at the other side
of this, if it's still relevant. Regardless, it was a
great time filling in for Dan over the last three days.
I love the interaction with you guys, the best listeners
in talk radio. Stay tuned, listen to the next show.
Joe PAGs will be up next, but tune in tomorrow.
Who knows will be the guests at that point. Signing
off for the Dan Kaplis Show, Steve Reims, Welkin any show,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.