Former President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Colorado this week by renewing calls to free ex–Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence for her role in a 2021 election–system breach.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump wrote, “FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by crooked Colorado politicians, including the big Mail-In Ballot supporting the governor of the State. Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election. She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!”
In August 2024, a Mesa County jury convicted Peters on seven of ten counts stemming from her decision to allow an outside consultant, affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, to access a secure room and copy Dominion Voting Systems data during a routine software update. She was found guilty of:
- Three counts of attempting to influence a public servant
- One count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation
- One count of official misconduct
- One count of violation of duty
- One count of failure to comply with Secretary of State requirements
At sentencing in October, Judge Matthew Barrett rejected Peters’s claim of acting in the public interest and handed down the maximum term, totaling nine years behind bars. Prosecutors tied her actions directly to the so-called “Big Lie”, the unfounded conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged against Trump in the 2020 election, and noted that no credible evidence supported her allegations.
Peters’s federal habeas corpus petition is pending in U.S. District Court, but there is no indication it will secure her release before appeal resolution.
Because Peters was convicted under state law, the president cannot pardon her.
Trump’s campaign to free Peters is part of his broader effort to delegitimize mail-in voting and remove electronic voting machines, moves he hinted at this week when announcing plans for an executive order to end mail-in ballots “because they’re corrupt,” despite Colorado’s long-standing universal-mail-ballot system.
