This week: a felony conviction that may not survive, a bond petition after five assaults, constitutional challenge to caucuses, rural sheriff resignations, federal ballot raids, and the systems that can’t enforce their own rules.
The Colorado Court of Appeals rejected the prosecution’s post-argument filing as a typo correction. The prosecution raised a 2021 statutory amendment nine days after oral arguments where Judge Welling said he was “baffled”—after six months of briefing in which neither party mentioned it. The Court called it “more in the nature of a brief containing a supplemental argument.” If jury instructions relied on misdemeanor elements, the felony conviction may not survive. Peters’ attorneys also filed for bond pending appeal after claiming a fifth prison assault that DOC denied. The sworn accounts contradict. One is false.
Rachel Suh will ask a Denver District Court judge February 5 to stop Colorado from accepting caucus results as ballot access to the primary. The Pagosa Springs activist argues private parties cannot certify public elections. Unaffiliated voters—49.7% of the electorate—remain locked out of caucuses.
Jackson County Sheriff Dustin Weber resigned effective March 1st, citing doubled health insurance premiums on his $59,000 salary and dispatcher wages “below poverty level.” His departure leaves a department struggling with crumbling jail facilities that won’t meet new state standards by July 1st.
Twenty-five FBI agents seized 700 boxes of 2020 ballots from Fulton County January 28. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was on scene. A federal judge found probable cause after the county admitted 315,000 early votes were counted without required signatures. The Wall Street Journal reports Gabbard has spent months investigating the 2020 election, regularly briefing Trump.
Attorney General Phil Weiser investigates Secretary of State Jena Griswold for campaign finance violations. Weiser faces 1,988 identical AI-analyzed violations. Griswold’s division investigates Weiser. The system designed to enforce campaign finance law cannot enforce it on the enforcers.
Full coverage inside.
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