Election clerk arrested in bagel shop amid allegations of filming court hearing on iPad

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An election clerk was arrested and later released by police in Mesa County, Colorado, on allegations of resisting a search warrant.

Tina Peters, who was last year accused of leaking voting machines logins, appeared to argue with police on Tuesday during her arrest in a video obtained by 9News.

The Grand Junction Police Department said it had a search warrant for an iPad belonging to Ms Peters, who was accused of filming a court hearing on Monday.

When police arrived at the scene in the 600 block of Main Street on Tuesday morning to search for the iPad, Ms Peters reportedly refused to comply with the search warrant and was arrested, according to reports.

She appeared to kick members of the Grand Junction Police Department, who were heard telling the election clerk, “Don’t kick!” Ms Peters also shouted “Let go of me, let go of me”.

AsThe Denver Post reported on Tuesday, the search warrant was not connected to the data breach allegations last year, which are subject to an ongoing FBI probe.

Ms Peters was instead accused of using her iPad to film a court hearing involving her former deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, the warrant reportedly said.

In a statement, the Grand Junction Police Department said it had been assisting “investigators with the Mesa County District attorney’s office who advised our officers they were executing a search warrant”.

“Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was arrested and released on scene, pending charges related to this incident. It’s important to clarify that this arrest is exclusively related to events that occurred today.”

While charges have not been filed for the voting machine login data leak – an investigation is ongoing and Ms Peters, who denies such charges, has been barred from overseeing elections in the meantime by the Colorado state attorney, according to CBS Denver.

Images from Mesa County voting machines appeared online last August after they were reportedly shared by a well known QAnon conspiracy theorist, Ron Watkins, on 8chan, a website favoured by the far right.

Ms Peters also appeared along with Mr Watkins, an administrator of 8chan, at a “voter fraud” conference in South Dakota the same month which was hosted by Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. The images were also shown at the event.

Prosecutors allege that Ms Knisely accessed a Mesa County computer belonging to Ms Peters in the wake of the voting machine login leak last year despite being suspended. Both women deny the claims.

Ms Peters, if found to have filmed a court hearing on her iPad, could be charged.