Following her release from prison last month, former Colorado election official Tina Peters has hit the ground running with more than 17 appearances in right-wing media. During her media tour, Peters has spread numerous conspiracy theories about supposed voter fraud and foreign interference in elections, while repeatedly boasting about advising President Donald Trump on how to fix the purported problem.

Peters — who was released following commutation of her sentence on charges related to 2020 election conspiracy theories — has claimed that she urged Trump to issue executive orders that could severely curtail voting rights during a White House meeting and argued that Trump should unilaterally ban the use of voting machines and mail-in ballots, actions that would almost certainly be challenged in court.

Peters and her lawyer, Peter Ticktin, met with Trump on June 30, seemingly as part of an emerging plot to subvert the midterm elections. According to CNN, Ticktin, who also claims to be the president’s childhood best friend, is pressing Trump to issue “an executive order to effectively seize federal control of the upcoming midterms by declaring a national emergency based on alleged foreign interference through electronic voting machines,” and is involved in drafting a proposed EO toward that end.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, a vocal supporter of Peters, and others on his War Room podcast have spent weeks calling for Trump to take those exact actions.

Peters’ right-wing media tour: “Get rid of the machines” 

Peters, a former Mesa County clerk, looms large among MAGA media figures who deny the results of the 2020 election. Following a pressure campaign by Trump, Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted Peters’ nine-year sentence, ostensibly on free speech grounds, a decision publicly opposed by two members of the commutation board. (Polis then fired them for speaking out.)

Media Matters found Peters has made at least 17 appearances in right-wing media programs or events since her release on June 1, including an interview that day on Bannon’s show.

During a June 24 fundraiser for herself, Peters said that “Trump called me the other day,” and later added: “I believe Trump could sign an executive order to get rid of the machines.”

On an appearance the same day on The Alex Jones Show, Peters reiterated that Trump “called me” and again argued that the president “should do an executive order to ban electronic voting machines across the nation.” She also alleged that “there were parts made in China” in the equipment she’d seen. (There is no public evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election.)

The next day, Peters appeared on the Joel Oltmann Untamed podcast, where she repeated and broadened her recommendation to Trump. “We’ve got to get rid of the machines,” Peters said. “President Trump needs to sign an executive order —”

“And the mail-in ballots,” host Joel Oltmann interjected.

“And the mail-in ballots,” Peters agreed, “Saying it’s unconstitutional that these things are allowed to be done. There’s no security threshold when you have foreign agents that have proprietary authority, power, over the things that are used for our most sacred right, which is to vote who we want to represent us.” Peters also said Trump asked her to “get me the info.”

On a June 28 appearance on Faith & Freedom, Peters said that “we have to get rid of the machines. The machines don’t have any transparency; they are flipping votes.”

Then on July 2, Peters went on a livestream and described her White House meeting with Trump. “We are, right now, you know, with meeting the president yesterday, giving him a real solution to how to stop what’s happening.”

“There is a plan,” Peters said. “Yesterday, when I was with the president, he talked — and I can’t get into the plan — but we talked, he basically said to his lead counsel to do what I was asking.”

Peters repeated that read out of her meeting on July 5 in an interview on The Roger Stone Show.

“I just met with President Trump, and I told him, I said, sir, Mr. President, we have four months … We are going to lose the election if we don’t get rid of the machines,” Peters said. She added: “We have a plan going forward, I spoke to the president about it, and I’m hopeful that something can be done.”

What exactly that “something” is remains to be seen, but the last few weeks have provided some clues, and it looks a lot like what Peters’ own lawyer is advocating.

The plot to declare a national emergency and seize voting systems

Peters’ comments fit into a larger MAGA campaign to undermine the midterms that stretches from fringe media shows to the highest reaches of the administration. Although some aspects of the scheme aren’t publicly clear, Bannon and those in his orbit have laid out the basics.

First, a White House “task force” that includes right-wing media figure John Solomon — who previously laundered false allegations about the Biden family’s connection with Ukraine — would likely release documents purporting to show that China had interfered, or is planning to interfere, with U.S. elections. Judging by Bannon’s recent rhetoric, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, a Trump attack dog, and Pulte’s chief of staff Christina Norton, who has ties to the election denial movement, appear to be key players in this aspect of the operation.

Last month, NBC News reported that FBI Director Kash Patel “promoted” an “unsubstantiated claim” that “asserts that the Chinese mass-produced driver's licenses to be used in a mail-in ballot scheme,” and that Patel “linked to an article written by John Solomon.”

Next, Trump would use the declassified documents — potentially presented out of context — as a “predicate” to declare a national emergency, thereby granting himself “king-like powers” over elections, in the words of the scheme’s supporters.

Trump would then issue an executive order attempting to curtail voting rights along the lines of the SAVE America Act, which could force voters to show proof of citizenship when registering, and — if Peters’ recommendations hold sway — ban the use of machines and mail-in voting. The executive order could serve as a back door to enact the voter suppression legislation, which has stalled in Congress and doesn’t appear to have a clear path toward becoming law.

As a guest on Bannon’s show described it: “Stop talking about the SAVE Act and do a national security emergency for elections, which is the SAVE Act, which contains everything that's in the SAVE Act, Steve, and more and more.” The guest, Wayne Allyn Root, also claimed that he texted Trump about a national emergency executive order.

After Media Matters reported on the Bannon-Pulte-Solomon operation, Bannon confirmed its existence. “I want to give the devil his due,” Bannon said on July 2.

“This is about this effort we're doing to make sure that we get official details and facts on the 2020 election, and then layer on top of that, a national security emergency, and layer on top of that, an executive order that is Save America,” Bannon said, adding: “Fantastic.”