DENVER (CN) — A former Colorado elections clerk convicted of violating her duties for leaking voting machine data asked a federal magistrate judge on Tuesday to facilitate her release on bond pending her state appeal.
According to the research of Chief Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak, however, no federal court in the history of the United States has ever intervened to release an inmate on bond pending a state court appeal. In fact, Varholak said he isn’t even sure how doing so would be logistically possible.
“What if petitioner violates the bond? Does the state revoke bond? Do I revoke bond? I don’t think petitioner has cited a single case in the history of the United States where a federal court granted an appeal bond in a state case,” Varholak said before a packed courtroom on the fourth floor of the Alfred Arraj U.S. Courthouse in downtown Denver…