(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The patriotic whistleblower who received nine years for trying to expose voting-machine vulnerabilities in Colorado may soon be vindicated.
Sheriff Dar Leaf, of Barry County in southwest Michigan, posted an April 2021 email correspondence between Jessi Romero, of Colorado’s Secretary of State’s office, and two staffers from Dominion Voting Systems that appeared to provide exculpatory evidence for whistleblower Tina Peters.
My office is referring the following evidence related to the Colorado SOS and Dominion for federal investigation. Colorado received HAVA funds and used 5.11 without EAC certification. This exculpatory / Brady evidence should have been provided to Tina Peters. pic.twitter.com/SLyDdXsiNi
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) August 28, 2025
The email suggests that Mesa County used uncertified software that may have violated federal election-security protocols in the 2020 election, potentially justifying the efforts by Peters to expose election-fraud gaslighters.
“My office is referring the following evidence related to the Colorado SOS and Dominion for federal investigation,” Leaf wrote in his X post.
He noted that prosecutors had failed to make Peters’s defense team aware of the evidence, thereby violating her due process rights and invalidating her conviction.
Peters served as an election clerk for Mesa County in 2020. Following widespread reports of irregularities that were linked to Dominion, she was prosecuted for breaching the system during a 2021 update and allowing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to access a copy of the data as part of his privately funded effort to expose vote fraud.
Peters received a nine-year sentence stemming from her felony conviction, while Dominion received a hefty settlement from BlackRock-owned Fox News after claiming defamation. The Denver-based company’s unrelenting lawfare attacks effectively chilled any mainstream media desire to report on voting-machine irregularities—despite their regularly having done so before the 2020 election.
Lindell was forced to pay $2.3 million to a Dominion employee but claimed victory after the jury awarded just a small fraction of the $62.7 million sought by Eric Coomer, a Dominion “election security” specialist who had posted publicly about his hatred of President Donald Trump.
Leaf previously helped expose the fact that nearly half of the parts used by Dominion came from China-linked sources.
Nearly 50% of Dominion parts come from Chinese sources according to internal emails. pic.twitter.com/R5YqnD5hE6
— Jason I (@ickesCyberGB) May 10, 2024
He also has highlighted evidence showing that foreign nationals accessed the equipment during the 2020 election.
ELECTION INTEGRITY.🚨
"Nevena, we are seeing logins from your account in Kosovo, can you confirm this is expected?"
Dominion Voting Systems officials in U.S. showed concerns about potential hacking of Serbian staffer account prior to 2020 election. Whoa. 🔻 pic.twitter.com/pL6oV0xukN
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 19, 2024
After winning re-election in 2024, President Donald Trump reportedly directed the federal Justice Department to explore ways of freeing Peters. However, because her case was prosecuted at the state level, Trump does not have the ability to pardon her, and current Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, is unlikely to do so.
The Trump administration is also gearing up on its efforts to assure a secure 2026 midterm election. The president recently appointed watchdog Heather Honey to serve as election-integrity czar through the Department of Homeland Security.
The exculpatory evidence for Peters ironically comes as evidence mounts implicating Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the cover-up of an election-stealing attempt ahead of the 2024 election.
Griswold’s office provided election codes in a hidden tab of a spreadsheet document that was posted on its website for months until state Republicans called attention to it a week before Election Day.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Beall subsequently admitted in a call with Democrat election officials that Griswold’s office had quietly attempted to cover up the scandal in order to avoid a “media storm.”
And here it is:
An Audio recording has been obtained of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold telling local election officials they weren't informed she leaked voting machine passwords online because she wanted to avoid causing a "media storm."
“Griswold told me that day… https://t.co/FvSQXNSqY4 pic.twitter.com/n3ZVv4J90W
— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) August 21, 2025
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
