A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.

“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”

Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity.

The man was affiliated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from then-President Donald Trump.

At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.

Before being sentenced, Peters insisted that everything she did to try to unroot what she believed was fraud was for the greater good: “I’ve never done anything with malice to break the law. I’ve only wanted to serve the people of Mesa County.”

Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called the sentence “fair and just.”Russian hackers disrupted: A hacking group tied to Russian intelligence tried to worm its way into the systems of dozens of Western think tanks, journalists and former military and intelligence officials, Microsoft and U.S. authorities said Thursday.

The group, known as Star Blizzard to cyberespionage experts, targeted its victims with emails that appeared to come from a trusted source — a tactic known as spear phishing. In fact, the emails sought access to the victims’ internal systems as a way to steal information and disrupt their activities.

Star Blizzard’s actions were persistent and sophisticated, according to Microsoft, and the group often did detailed research on its targets before launching an attack. Star Blizzard also went after civil society groups, U.S. companies, American military contractors and the Department of Energy, which oversees many nuclear programs, the company said.

On Thursday, a U.S. court unsealed documents authorizing Microsoft and the Department of Justice to seize more than 100 website domain names associated with Star Blizzard. That action came after a lawsuit was filed against the network by Microsoft and the NGO-Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit tech organization that investigated Star Blizzard.

TikTok star charged: A TikTok personality known as Mr. Prada is charged in the bludgeoning death of a Louisiana therapist whose body was discovered over the weekend in a rolled up tarp near a state highway, authorities said Thursday.

The body of Nicholas Abraham, 69, of Baton Rouge was found Sunday in rural Tangipahoa Parish, which is east of Baton Rouge and north of New Orleans. On Tuesday, police in Dallas County, Texas, arrested Terryon Thomas, 20, after Baton Rouge police said he fled from them in Abraham’s car.

Thomas’ relationship to the victim and a motive for the killing were unclear, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said. Thomas is charged with second-degree murder and awaiting extradition from Texas.

Abraham was seen on surveillance video entering Thomas’ apartment Saturday night, according to an arrest warrant. He was wearing the same clothing he had on when his body was discovered.

Witnesses told investigators that Thomas was seen hours later struggling to drag something in a blue tarp down the building’s stairs before placing the tarp in Abraham’s car, according to the affidavit.

Prison term in rat attack: An Indiana man convicted of child neglect for a rat attack that left his 6-month-old son with disfiguring injuries has been sentenced to the maximum 16 years in prison.

A judge sentenced David Schonabaum, 32, on Wednesday. The Evansville man was convicted by a jury in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent.

Evansville police arrested Schonabaum and his wife, Angel, in September 2023 after he called 911 to report that his son had been severely injured by rats inside their residence, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Angel Schonabaum, 29, pleaded guilty in September to charges of felony neglect, days before she was scheduled to stand trial. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 24.