#dan rubenstein

Sydney Carruth at MS NOW:

President Donald Trump has used the first veto of his second term to strike down a unanimously bipartisan funding plan for a major safe drinking water project in rural Colorado. The abrupt move drew swift condemnation from the state’s congressional delegation, including from far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert, who sponsored the legislation and whose district is affected. Trump’s veto followed his pledge of retribution against Colorado state leaders after a jury last year convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Trump ally, of breaching her county’s secure voting systems in an attempt to find nonexistent evidence to substantiate Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Peters remains in prison in Colorado despite the president’s calls for her release.

“My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies,” Trump said in a statement explaining his decision. “Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation.” The president did not mention Peters in explaining Tuesday’s veto, which comes on the heels of his denying requests for disaster relief in Colorado and authorizing the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the largest federal climate research center, which is in Boulder. But he took to social media again Wednesday to rail about her imprisonment. He called Democratic Gov. Jared Polis a “scumbag” and said Polis and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, a Republican, should “rot in Hell” for prosecuting Peters.

The “Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act” aimed to revise the payment terms that have long stood in the way of the completion of a vital pipeline that delivers clean water from the Pueblo Reservoir to rural communities in Colorado’s Eastern Plains, where the groundwater is largely unusable due to a range of toxicities that threaten public health. 

The bill would have given communities in the Arkansas River Valley 100 years to pay back interest-free federal loans for their share of the project, reducing the initial payment burden enough to incentivize the completion of the 130-mile pipeline. 

“President Trump decided to veto a completely noncontroversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously,” Boebert, a longtime Trump ally who has clashed with him recently over the release of the Epstein files, told MS NOW. “Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado.” Boebert was one of four House Republicans who signed a discharge petition in September that forced a vote on the release of the Epstein files, which Trump was staunchly against. The Trump administration attempted to convince Boebert to remove her name from the petition before the files came to a vote, but she refused. 

“I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability,” Boebert said. “Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”'

Petty POS tyrant Donald Trump vetoed the Finish The Arkansas Valley Conduit Act bill that was unanimously passed in both houses that would have given the Eastern Plains of rural Colorado safe drinking water.

This is a retaliatory move because the State of Colorado won’t do his evil bidding to free criminal Tina Peters from prison for her crimes.

See Also:

NBC News: Trump issues first vetoes of his second term

NCRM: Trump Slams Colorado Day After Vetoing Water Pipeline Project

Matt Cohen at Democracy Docket:

Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) signaled Tuesday that he could grant clemency to convicted election denier Tina Peters — a suggestion that the state’s top election official condemned as “shocking and worrisome.”  Polis explained in a social media post that Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a former state senator, was recently sentenced to probation and community service after being convicted of four felonies, including attempt to influence a public official — the same crime of which Peters was convicted.

“[I]t is not lost on me that [Lewis] was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence,” Polis wrote. “Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law.” Polis said that the sentencing disparity is the context with which he is considering clemency cases like Peters’, and added that he’s extending the deadline for clemency applications until April 3.  Peters, a former GOP county clerk, is serving a nine-year state prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system breach. In a statement, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) — who previously urged Polis against pardoning Peters — slammed the governor for comparing Peters’ crimes with Lewis’.

“Tina Peters was found guilty of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant along with four additional felony and misdemeanor counts,” Griswold said. “Beyond one count in common, it is not accurate to suggest that Peters’ and Sonya Jaquez Lewis’ actions or impacts are the same. Peters organized the breach of the election equipment, broke the public trust and attacked the very foundations of our democratic process. Her actions are still being used to try to undermine the 2026 election. She should get no special treatment by the Governor, and his statement is shocking and worrisome.” Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubenstein, a Republican who prosecuted Peters,  said any clemency for Peters would be a “gross injustice.” “In Tina Peters’ case, the court imposed a sentence within the range established by law, sentencing her to three and a half years on each felony count, even though the statue allows up to six years,” Rubenstein said in a statement. “Judges hear the evidence at trial, weigh the impact of the conduct and the level of remorse, and determine where a sentence should fall within the range the Legislature established.” In 2021, Peters — who was then serving as Mesa County clerk — allowed unauthorized individuals to access sensitive voting-machine software, helped copy and circulate confidential election data and then misled investigators as the scheme unraveled. The data later appeared in fringe, far-right conspiracy circles promoting Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen away from him. 

This is an awful decision from from DINO Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, if he goes through with it.