This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
President Donald Trump announced on social media Thursday night that he’s pardoned former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — a move that does nothing to affect her state conviction and nine-year sentence in state prison.
Peters, a Republican and the former clerk in Mesa County, was convicted of orchestrating a breach of her county’s election system in 2021.
Her case was tried in state court and she was convicted by a jury of her peers in Mesa County. Her sentence was handed down by a state judge. Only Gov. Jared Polis can pardon her in the case or commute her sentence.
Polis has given no indication he plans to pardon Peters or reduce her sentence.
“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 written 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.”
Nevertheless, Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that Peters is “a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest.”
“Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections,” Trump posted. “Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”
Trump won handily in Mesa County in 2020. Peters’ breach of her county’s election system in search of election fraud, which involved sneaking an unauthorized person into a sensitive election system update, didn’t reveal anything wrong with Colorado’s voting system that would have altered the results of any elections.
Peters, 70, was sentenced in October 2024. She is being held at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo.
A federal judge in Colorado recently denied Peters’ request to be released pending an appeal.
