Peter Ticktin is an attorney who frequents the conspiracy theory podcast and conference circuit, calling for “martial law” following the midterm elections.
Ticktin is the vice president of the American Rights Alliance, a non-profit that is best known for providing legal services and funding to Tina Peters, a former election clerk who was convicted in a scheme of breaching election systems after the 2020 election.
Ticktin had a private lunch at the White House in June with the president, Tina Peters and White House Counsel David Warrington. Ticktin has also hand-delivered pardon applications to former pardon attorney Ed Martin and has recently claimed to have “alerted” Attorney General Todd Blanche about election machines.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who was President Donald Trump’s high school classmate, has garnered headlines. Ticktin has called for the president to declare a “national emergency” and possibly even impose martial law ahead of the elections. Ticktin’s advice often relies on debunked theories about voting machines’ vulnerabilities.
“We can use the machines as long as we have an audit and a hand count of the ballots before certification,” Ticktin said during a recent appearance on Wayne Allyn Root’s online show. But he warned that we cannot “just let these machines take over our country,” claiming the machines have “taken over” Great Britain and Canada.
Root has encouraged the president to declare a national emergency ahead of the elections. And Ticktin reinforced Root’s dire assessment, saying, “should this election turn into the debacle I’m talking about…he’s gonna have to declare martial law.”
Ticktin added an ominous warning concerning the future of America following the midterm elections: “[America] comes to an end somewhere, and it’s gonna be violent.”
The American Rights Alliance and Efforts to Free Tina Peters
Ticktin is the vice president of the American Rights Alliance (ARA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Established in 2024, the ARA has three employees, including Ticktin, listed on its 990 financial report. Evan Turk serves as the president, and CEO and Adam Pennington is the secretary. Despite spending $133,000 in expenses in 2024, no salary is listed for any employee. The organization’s revenue as of 2024 was $397,000.
The ARA’s primary activity is filing amicus briefs in local and federal courts. The ARA has filed at least two amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases. One ARA brief, filed in Trump v. J.G.G., supported the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport migrants. Another ARA amicus brief supported the administration’s attempt to deploy the National Guard in Chicago. Both of the briefs were filed by Ticktin.
The ARA is best known for its work on behalf of Tina Peters, who was convicted for a number of election-related crimes. According to its website, the ARA filed a federal amicus brief on her behalf, organized a public clemency campaign and partially covered the cost of her legal defense. Peters is a former clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, who was sentenced by a district court judge to nine years in prison for her role in a scheme to breach computer election systems following the 2020 election. Motivated by false claims of election fraud, Peters “snuck in” an outside computer expert who copied Mesa County’s Dominion Voting Systems computer server. A three-judge panel for the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Peters’s conviction but overturned the district court’s sentence.
In a Dec. 7, 2025, letter to President Trump, Ticktin advocated on Peters’s behalf for a presidential pardon. Trump publicly called for Peters’ release, posting “FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!” on Truth Social in May 2025. Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted Peters’s sentence the same month. The ARA described Peters’s release in June 2026 as a “victory” on its website homepage.
Peters met with Trump, Ticktin and White House Counsel David Warrington at the White House on June 30 for a private lunch. Ticktin later posted photos of the meeting along with the caption: “It was an honor to spend time with @realDonaldTrump in the Oval Office and personally thank him for the pardon and all he granted for @realtinapeters.” Peters visited the White House again on October 5 to discuss the midterms with Trump. According to Peter Ticktin, she described a plan to seize ballots for a hand recount. “It’s a good plan,” he said, “and I do think something like that is probably going to happen.”
Peter Ticktin’s White House Advocacy and Election Conspiracy Theories
Ticktin’s role as Tina Peters’s lawyer is just one example of his efforts to undermine the public’s confidence in American elections. He is often featured on conspiracy theorist podcasts, including RedPill78, which is hosted by QAnon supporter Zak Paine. While on the podcast, Ticktin repeated false allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 election, claiming that “the real insurrection occurred on November 3 and 4 [2020].”
Ticktin has alleged extensive foreign interference in American elections without factual support. According to the Washington Post, Ticktin is one of the activists who has encouraged the president “to declare a national emergency” ahead of the election, issuing an executive order intended for Trump based on the premise that China interfered in the 2020 election. The executive order would then allow Trump to impose restrictions such as nationwide voter ID laws and ban mail-in ballots.
Ticktin told the Post in February, 2026 that “the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes” and this “causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.” He repeated these assertions in July, when CNN reported that he claimed to have “evidence proving claims about the 2020 election would become public soon, asserting that Venezuela, China, Iran and others were all involved.” As of October 2026, no such evidence has been released.
Aside from his 2020 election conspiracy claims, Ticktin has advanced conspiracy theories on the Jan. 6 insurrection that followed. During an appearance on the Mel K Show in May 2026, he said Jan. 6 was a conspiracy planned by the FBI to distract people from the “stolen” election. Ticktin elaborated on his theory, claiming: “Back in September [of 2020], they were planning on breaking windows and going into the Capitol Building. That was before the election even, because that was playing hand-in-hand with the election.”
Ticktin is the legal representative for hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters. He recently filed claims for 200 of them to receive a payout under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Along with ARA member and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Treniss Evans, he worked to hand-deliver eleven pardon applications on behalf of rioters to the Justice Department’s former pardon attorney, Ed Martin. Martin posted photos on X from his meeting with Ticktin on May 25, 2025, along with the caption: “At work with the great lawyer @PeterTicktin. He had done recommendations for pardons – I listened. Cuz he’s wise.”
In anticipation for the upcoming midterm election, Ticktin offered a new conspiracy theory during his appearance on Root’s online show in September, this time involving Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “Carney admitted yesterday we’re in an economic and political war with Canada…. That means they’re cheating in the election. They’ve got the [election] machines.” Ticktin asserted that he had “alerted” Attorney General Todd Blanche about the election machines and that “apparently they’re secured now.” Still, Ticktin insisted the machines “actually show that Canada participated in the cheat.”
Even if the president does not declare martial law ahead of the 2026 midterms, Ticktin has other proposals: “This is why I need to become the next attorney general,” he told online host Mel K earlier this year. “There’s nobody else who’s gonna do what needs to be done.”
Founded in 2026, the Civil Defense Institute is a nonpartisan investigative research organization. We research people, organizations and networks whose conduct undermines civil society and Americans’ freedom to participate in public life. Our work examines extremist and conspiracy-driven campaigns, foreign influence, organized harassment and the institutions that enable them.