{"id":429,"date":"2026-05-16T11:03:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:03:32","slug":"colorados-democratic-governor-commutes-ex-election-clerk-tina-peters-sentence-after-trump-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Colorado’s Democratic governor commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters’ sentence after Trump pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of election conspiracy theorist Tina Peters following pressure from President Donald Trump, the latest instance of the president using his powers to reward those who echoed his baseless claims of mass fraud as the cause of his 2020 loss.<\/p>\n

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Trump has championed the case of Peters, a 70-year-old former county clerk who was sentenced to nine years behind bars after being convicted in a scheme to make a copy of her county\u2019s election computer system. She gets released June 1.<\/p>\n

In April, a Colorado appeals court upheld her conviction but ordered Peters to be resentenced because it said the judge who sent her to prison wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud, a decision that Polis praised.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that Peters was convicted of serious crimes and deserved to spend time in prison. \u201cHowever, this is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes,\u201d the governor wrote.<\/p>\n

He added Peters’ application \u201cdemonstrates taking responsibility for your crimes, and a commitment to follow the law going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump posted around the time of the announcement on his Truth Social platform: \u201cFREE TINA!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Affront to the rule of law\u2019<\/p>\n

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said \u201cit was a dark day for democracy\u201d and \u201dselling out our state\u2019s justice system for Trump is an affront to the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA clear message is being sent to those willing to break the law and attack democracy for the president \u2014 they will likely not face consequences for their actions,\u201d Griswold said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

Peters has been serving her sentence at a prison in Pueblo after being convicted in 2024 by jurors in Mesa County, a Republican stronghold that supported Trump.<\/p>\n

Peters snuck in an outside computer expert, an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, to make a copy of her county\u2019s Dominion Voting Systems election computer server as state officials updated it in 2021. After Peters joined Lindell onstage at a \u201ccybersymposium\u201d that promised to reveal proof of election rigging, video and photos of the upgrade, including passwords, were posted online.<\/p>\n

After the commutation, Peters issued a statement through her attorney thanking Polis and apologizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years ago I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong,\u201d Peters said. \u201cI have learned and grown during my time in prison and going forward I will make sure that my actions always follow the law, and I will avoid the mistakes of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also condemned threats and violence against voters, county clerks and election workers.<\/p>\n

Gubernatorial candidates weigh in<\/p>\n

Sen Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for Colorado governor, said he vehemently disagreed with the commutation and that Peters knowingly broke the law, undermined elections and was convicted by a jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawlessness only breeds more lawlessness,\u201d Bennet said. “With President Trump continuing to attack Colorado, we must do everything we can to stand strong for our institutions and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Republican candidate for governor, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, said she would have preferred that the trial judge revisit Peters’ sentence as ordered by the appeals court before the governor considered any commutation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA commutation or pardon by a governor should be reserved for truly extraordinary circumstances,” Kirkmeyer wrote in a statement. \u201cThe governor has a responsibility to apply justice fairly, consistently, and without bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump championed her cause<\/p>\n

Peters was convicted of state, not federal, crimes, which put her beyond the reach of Trump\u2019s pardon power that he used to free those convicted of crimes for the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. But the president still championed her cause.<\/p>\n

Trump has lambasted both Polis, calling him a \u201cScumbag Governor,\u201d and the Republican district attorney who prosecuted her, Daniel Rubinstein, for keeping Peters in prison. He has referred to Peters, as \u201celderly\u201d and \u201csick.\u201d Earlier this year, Trump uninvited Polis from a White House meeting with governors over the case.<\/p>\n

The president said Colorado was \u201csuffering a big price\u201d for refusing to release her. His administration has been 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 relocated the U.S. Space Command to Alabama.<\/p>\n

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said the commutation \u201csignals that it is open season on our election and election officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGov. Polis is bending the knee to the same political voices and conspiracy theories that are undermining belief in our democratic institutions,\u201d Crane said. \u201cThis is now Gov. Polis\u2019 legacy. He will not be able to run from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tina Peters’ declining health in prison<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 lawyers have said her health has declined in prison. Peters, who had part of her right lung removed in 2017, started coughing frequently after the prison\u2019s heating system was turned on for the winter and has had trouble sleeping on her mattress because of chronic pain from fibromyalgia, her lawyers said.<\/p>\n

In January, Peters was involved in a scuffle with another inmate but was found not guilty of assault following a prison disciplinary hearing, Colorado Department of Corrections spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia said. Peters was found guilty of being in a location without authorization.<\/p>\n

The federal Bureau of Prisons tried but failed to get Peters moved to a federal prison. But in January, Polis said he was considering granting clemency for Peters, calling her sentence \u201cunusual and harsh\u201c for a first-time, nonviolent offender. In March he repeated those arguments in a lengthy post on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n

Polis defended his decision on Friday in a social media post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always stand for free speech and to make sure that we live in a country that no matter what your viewpoints are, you are not incarcerated longer because of them,” Polis said.<\/p>\n

In contrast to some other Democratic governors, Polis, who prides himself on being a political iconoclast, has taken a sometimes accommodating stance toward Trump. While he criticized Trump\u2019s stance on tariffs and immigration, Polis praised earlier moves by the president 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.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.<\/p>\n

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