Trump pardons jailed ex-Colorado election official Tina Peters, but she was charged in state court
Tina Peters | Courtesy: CBS
President Trump said Thursday evening he is granting a pardon to Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who is serving a nine-year state sentence for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines — even though the president’s pardon power is widely understood to only apply to federal crimes.
“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” the president claimed on Truth Social, though Peters was prosecuted by an elected Republican district attorney. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections.”
Mr. Trump claimed Peters was trying to “expose Voter Fraud” in 2020. The president has long insisted, without evidence, that he lost the 2020 race due to fraud, claims that were promoted by Peters, a onetime candidate for Colorado secretary of state.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement Thursday that “Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers for state crimes in a state Court. Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”
“One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a separate statement. “The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”
A former Mesa County clerk, Peters was convicted in state court last year on seven charges, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was sentenced in October 2024.
Prosecutors have alleged that in 2021, Peters and others “devised and executed a deceptive scheme” to cause an unauthorized person to access Mesa County voting machines. Images from the county’s voting equipment later showed up online. Prosecutors said that Peters — who was aligned with national figures who have falsely claimed that voting machines were rigged in 2020 — became “fixated” on alleged voting problems.
At a sentencing hearing late last year, Judge Matthew Barrett called Peters a “charlatan” and “as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen.” Peters has denied wrongdoing, and she insisted before her sentencing that she had “never done anything with malice to break the law.”
Earlier this week, a federal magistrate judge rejected Peters’ request to be released while she appeals her conviction.
“Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and in a Republican county of Colorado and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws including criminal impersonation,” Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement Thursday. “No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions. This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”
Mr. Trump has taken an interest in Peters’ case, warning in August that he would take “harsh measures” if she wasn’t let out of state custody. The Federal Bureau of Prisons asked the state of Colorado last month to transfer her to federal custody, drawing pushback from state officials and calls for Polis to deny the request.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing Peters argued in a letter last week that Mr. Trump may have the power to pardon the former Mesa County clerk.
Under the Constitution, the president’s pardon power applies to “Offences against the United States,” which is almost universally understood not to include state crimes. But Peters’ lawyer, Peter Ticktin, laid out a theory that the power could extend to the states. Ticktin acknowledged that the issue “has never been raised in any court.”
In a statement late Thursday, Ticktin thanked Mr. Trump and argued that Peters “needs to be released while the issues are being resolved,” including while courts weigh whether she should be released due to the president’s pardon.
“I am greatly thankful for President Trump,” Ticktin said in an email to CBS News. “He has always been true to his beliefs and continues to fight against injustice. God bless our President.”
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Mr. Trump has intervened on behalf of others who back his false election fraud claims. Shortly after his inauguration in January, Mr. Trump offered pardons or commutations to everybody convicted in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president also granted pardons last month to dozens of people accused in state court of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, including “alternate state electors” and his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
