FBI probing claims official leaked election data to QAnon believers

• The FBI is investigating how Colorado election machines data ended up in QAnon videos. 
• Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state accused a Republican county clerk of leaking the data. 
• The QAnon movement has long stirred baseless election-fraud conspiracy theories. 

The FBI is joining an investigation into how images of sensitive data from voting machines in Colorado’s Mesa County ended up being shared in QAnon videos. 

A spokesperson for the bureau told Insider that its Denver field office was working with Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein in a criminal probe into how the data was leaked.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, last week accused Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a pro-Trump Republican, of allowing a non-authorized person to attend a May 25 meeting in which data from Dominion voting machines was accessible. 

“I think this is troubling for the entire state of Colorado, to have someone in a trusted position, literally trusted to protect democracy, allow this type of situation to occur,” Griswold said last week.

“To be very clear, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder allowed a security breach and, by all evidence at this point, assisted it.”

Peters said she believes she is being persecuted, the Colorado Sun reported.

She did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Insider. 

Data from the machines were featured in videos shared by QAnon adherents in channels on the encrypted Telegram app.

According to CNN, the meeting where Griswold claims the data was stolen was a “trustee build,” in which county and state officials met with Dominion employees to update election machine software. 

In the fallout from the election leak, Griswold has clashed with Mesa County commissioners, who blocked her appointment to replace Peters while the investigation is being conducted, CBS Colorado reported.. They appointed former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, to the role instead.

QAnon followers played a key role in spinning conspiracy theories that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump last year via manipulating election machines. 

The claims were pushed by Trump campaign attorneys including Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who are now being sued by Dominion. 

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