Trump calls on Colorado to release election-denying clerk from jail

President Donald Trump is calling on Colorado state officials to release Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk serving a nine-year prison sentence for stealing and sharing sensitive voting system data in a failed attempt to bolster Trump’s claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump characterized Peters as a “69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud” and a “political prisoner.”

“This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020,” Trump wrote.

Trump then announced that he was directing the Department of Justice to “take all necessary steps” to help secure Peters’ release. Because she was convicted on state charges, Trump cannot issue a presidential pardon for Peters, although Democratic Governor Jared Polis has similar powers at the state level.

In a statement, Colorado Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who Trump called “radical left,” told CyberScoop that the federal efforts would not derail the state’s plans to defend Peters’ sentence.

“Tina Peters is in prison because of her own actions. A grand jury indicted her and a trial jury found her guilty of breaking Colorado’s criminal laws,” Weiser said. “No one is above the law. The Colorado Attorney General’s Office will continue to defend this criminal conviction in post-conviction proceedings and on appeal. We are firm in pursuing justice for the people of the state of Colorado, protecting free and fair elections, and standing up for the rule of law.”

Peters, the former election clerk, was arrested and charged with seven felony counts for facilitating a data breach involving voting system data in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

The incident is widely viewed as one of the most serious breaches of election systems in modern history, and was one of numerous examples of individuals crossing serious legal boundaries in a misguided attempt to prove Trump’s voter fraud claims.  

The information stolen by Peters and her allies was later posted online, with the leaked data revealing no evidence of fraud or vote-flipping via hacking. County officials reiterated at the sentencing that a manual recount of ballots, along with multiple post-election audits of Mesa County elections, found “no material difference” in the vote totals the county reported in 2020.

Peters is currently attempting to move her case to federal courts. According to Colorado Public Radio, U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak indicated this week that Peters had not yet exhausted all of her appeal options at the state level, but has yet to make a ruling on the matter.

Attempts to reach Peters’ attorneys were not immediately returned.

Speaking in a video interview from Larimer County Jail in March, Peters told 9News that she had not had any direct discussions with Trump but that she knew of “other people out there that have reached out” on her behalf to conduct “negotiations” to secure her release.

Last year, just before handing down Peters’ sentence, a Colorado judge listened as her former friends, neighbors and colleagues in government all testified about the damage her actions had caused the Mesa County community.

Gerald Wood, a Mesa County resident whose security badge was used by Peters and allies to gain access to county voting systems, told the judge that Peters “lied to me, stole my identity and committed crimes in my name” — and that even after being caught, had “never, not once” expressed remorse about it.

Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis said the county government has had to spend more than $1.4 million to deal with the legal and administrative fallout from Peters’ crimes and concluded his comments by stating “her behavior has made this county a national laughingstock.”

Peters’ trial became a closely watched affair by both allies and detractors, and her conviction stands as a rare example of legal accountability for individuals involved in what morphed into a nationwide effort by Trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 election by claiming mass voter fraud.

Gillian Feiner, director of the Rule of Law program at the nonprofit States United Democracy Center, told CyberScoop that the seriousness of Peters’ crimes do not merit clemency.

“Tina Peters betrayed her oath to the Constitution when she undermined our election system,” Feiner said. “She was found guilty of breaking the law by a jury of everyday Americans and sentenced to 9 years in prison by a judge — that’s how our justice system is designed to work. Peters deserves to be held accountable for her actions — full stop.”