Denver — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of election conspiracy theorist Tina Peters after pressure from President Donald Trump, the latest example of the president using his powers to reward those who echoed his baseless claims of mass fraud as a reason for his 2020 loss.
Trump has championed the case of Peters, a 70-year-old former county clerk who was sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted in a scheme to make a copy of her county’s elections computer system. It will be released on June 1.
In April, the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered Peters’ re-sentencing because it said the judge who sent her to prison wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud, a decision that Polis praised. Despite this, the court upheld her conviction.
FILE – Candidate Tina Peters speaks during a state leadership debate, Feb. 25, 2023, in Hudson, Colorado.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file
In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that Peters was convicted of serious crimes and deserved to spend time in prison. “However, this is an unusual and extremely long sentence for a first-time offender who has committed nonviolent crimes,” the governor wrote.
President Donald Trump posted around the time of the announcement on his Truth Social platform: “TINA for free!”
‘An insult to the rule of law’
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said “it was a dark day for democracy” and “selling out our state’s justice system to Trump is an affront to the rule of law.”
“A clear message is being sent to those who wish to break the law and attack democracy for the president — they will likely not face the consequences of their actions,” Griswold said at a news conference.
Peters is serving her sentence in Pueblo prison after jurors convicted her in 2024 in Mesa County, a stronghold of Republicans who supported Trump.
Peters snuck an outside computer expert, an assistant to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, to make a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems election computer server in her county as state officials updated it in 2021. After Peters joined Lindell on stage for a “webinar” that promised to uncover evidence of election fraud, videos and photos of the upgrade, including passwords, were posted online.
Peters was convicted of state crimes, not federal crimes, putting her outside the scope of Trump’s pardon power, which he used to release those convicted of crimes in the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. But the president still champions her case.
Trump criticized both Polis, calling him a “shithole governor,” and the Republican attorney general who prosecuted her, Daniel Rubinstein, for keeping Peters in prison. He referred to Peters as “old” and “sick.” Earlier this year, Trump rescinded Polis’ invitation to a White House meeting with state governors on the issue.
The president said Colorado “suffered a heavy price” for refusing to release her. His administration was choking off funds, ending federal programs and denying disaster aid. It also announced the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and the transfer of the US Space Command to Alabama.
The health condition deteriorated in prison
Peters’ lawyers said her health deteriorated in prison. Lawyers for Peters, who had part of her right lung removed in 2017, began coughing frequently after turning on the prison’s heating system for the winter, and also had difficulty sleeping on her mattress due to chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia.
Alondra Gonzalez Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said Peters was involved in a fight with another inmate last January, but was acquitted of the assault charge after a prison disciplinary hearing. Peters was found guilty of being at a place without permission.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons attempted to transfer Peters to a federal prison but failed. But in January, Polis said he was considering granting clemency to Peters, calling her sentence “unusual and harsh” for a non-violent first-time offender. In March, he repeated these arguments in a lengthy post on the social media platform X.
“Justice in Colorado and America must be done equally,” Polis wrote.
After receiving negative feedback from other top Democratic leaders in the state, including Colorado’s attorney general and chief elections official, Polis told a Denver television station that Peters would have to show “appropriate remorse and apology” for his clemency request to be considered.
In contrast to some other Democratic governors, Polis, who prides himself on being a political maverick, has at times taken a permissive stance toward Trump. While he criticized Trump’s stance on tariffs and immigration, Polis praised the president’s previous moves such as the Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, and the nomination of vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Service.
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