Tina Peters, a former Republican county clerk from Colorado who embraced the false conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud, was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for crimes related to a violation of her county’s voting system.

“You are not a hero,” District Court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters. “You are a charlatan who used and continues to use your previous position in office to sell snake oil that has been proven time and time again to be garbage.”

“Your lies are well documented and these convictions are serious. I’m confident you would do it all again if you could,” Barrett told the 68-year-old former Mesa County clerk, who was accused of using someone else’s data. security badge that allows someone else to gain access to her county’s election system.

The person who used that badge was associated with Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow and a leading proponent of the claim that Trump’s defeat for a second term was due to voter fraud.

“You are as challenging a defendant as this court has ever seen,” Barrett told Peters.

Peters, who requested probation, told the judge before he was sentenced, “I have never done anything out of malice to break the law.” I just wanted to serve the people of Mesa County.”

Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubenstein told Barrett, “Ms. Peters has repeatedly demonstrated that she does not believe she did anything wrong.”

“She submitted a statement to the court in the pre-criminal investigation report, in which she gave excuses and justifications, but never acknowledged that she had done anything wrong, that this was not the way to handle this,” Rubenstein said.

“What does every 12-step program start with? It starts with recognizing that you have a problem, and she didn’t do that, and there’s no point in rehabilitating someone who doesn’t think they did anything wrong.”

Peters was immediately taken into custody after Barrett denied her attorney’s request to remain free.

Peters was convicted by a jury in August of seven offences, including attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to impersonate a criminal, neglect of duty and failure to comply with the Secretary of State’s requirements.

Shortly after Peters was convicted, Republican presidential candidate Trump told attendees at a campaign rally in Michigan that we won the 2020 election: “We won, we won, we won.”

“It was a rigged election,” Trump said.

“That’s why I’m doing it again. If I thought I lost, I wouldn’t do this again,” said Trump, who faces Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in this year’s presidential race.

Trump is facing criminal charges in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in state court in Atlanta, with charges related to his efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 election.