Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has granted pardon to former Colorado county elections official, Tina Peters, 69, now in prison for election fraud

Presidential pardon won´t free Peters, an ex-administrator who was convicted of orchestrating a data breach scheme to back false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted August 2024, in state court and sentenced to nine years in prison

Sentencing judge called Peters a ‘charlatan’ who posed a danger to the community for spreading lies about voting and undermining the democratic process

Trump´s pardon power applies only to federal courts, and the Trump administration has tried, unsuccessfully, to have Peters moved from state to federal prison

A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected Peters´ bid to be released from prison while she appeals her state conviction

President Trump issued a symbolic pardon to former Colorado county elections official Tina Peters [photo], who was convicted of trying to overturn the 2020 election. She will still serve her sentence since a presidential pardon has no sway over conviction in state court

Donald Trump Thursday announced he had issued a pardon to a disgraced state elections official, convicted of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The president’s action, primarily symbolic, will not absolve Tina Peters of the obligation to serve her jail sentence. The former Colorado county administrator last year, was convicted of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Last year October, 69-year-old Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted in state court and sentenced to nine years in prison.
The President´s pardon power applies only to cases adjudicated in federal court and the Trump administration has tried to have Peters moved from state to federal prison.  
A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected her bid to be released from prison while she appeals her state conviction.

In August 2024, jurors found Peters [photo], guilty for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity. Two months later, judge Matthew Barrett handed the MAGA darling a nine year prison sentence

The president announced the pardon on Truth Social, as he repeated his – debunked claims – of fraud in the previous election cycle: ‘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,’ Trump wrote. 
‘Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections. Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!’ 
Criticizing Democrat hypocrisy, Donald Trump accused them of ignoring ‘violent and vicious crime of all shapes, sizes, colors, and types. Violent Criminals who should have been locked up were allowed to attack again. 
‘Democrats were also far too happy to let in the worst from the worst countries so they could rip off American Taxpayers.’ 

The pardon granted Tina Peters by president Trump will not absolve the ex-administrator convicted of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, from the burden of restitution

‘Democrats only think there is one crime – Not voting for them!’, Trump wrote
However, Colorado governor, Jared Polis, is unequivocal that Trump’s pardon had no authority in his state: ‘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,’ Polis said. 
‘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.’ 
Colorado’s Democrat Attorney General Phil Weiser accused Trump of threatening the state.
‘This is a lawless act. It’s an act of intimidation. It has no basis in American law. Our system of government gives states authority to run their own criminal justice systems, he said. 
‘There was a conviction by a jury. There’s an appeal to the state courts. All that is happening under the rule of law. This president doesn’t respect the rule of law. But he doesn’t have authority to undermine how we operate our judicial system here in Colorado.’ 

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted last year in state court and sentenced to nine years in prison. On Monday, a federal magistrate judge rejected her bid to be released from prison

‘Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!’  – Trump

Peters filed a federal lawsuit asking that she be released on bond while her appeal is considered. 
Attorneys for the state had argued the appeal case should be thrown out partly because of a legal doctrine that prevents federal courts from getting involved in pending state criminal cases.
In his ruling federal magistrate judge Scott Varholak on Monday said Peters did not make a case justifying why he should get involved in overturning the sentence handed in state court.
Attorney for the ex-administrator, John Case, expressing his disappointment with the ruling, maintained his client is innocent, that the voting machines can not be trusted.
‘When Tina is released, and she will be released in time, hopefully soon, it will mean that we are healing from the atrocities which have befallen Tina and the people of Colorado,’ Case wrote in his statement.
The magistrate judge should free Peters because the state judge who sentenced her to nine years in prison violated her First Amendment rights, Case said.  

Gov. Jared Polis [photo], has said President’s Trump’s pardon had no authority in Colorado – ‘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’ 

Peters claimed she was punished for making allegations about election fraud. However prosecutors argued, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed judges to consider people´s speech during sentencing if deemed relevant.
During Peters´ October 2024 sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett called the defendant a ‘charlatan’ who posed a danger to the community, spreading lies about voting and undermining the democratic process.
Peters unapologetic, insisted all her actions were did was geared toward uprooting what she believed was fraud – actions done for the greater good.
Her lawyers argued that judge Barrett was wrong calling Peters’ statements ‘lies’ – there was no evidence her speech posed a danger.
In mid-November, the Trump administration sent a letter to the Colorado prison system asking that Peters be transferred to federal custody. The request was made so Peters could more easily be involved in the investigation into the election, according to her attorneys.
The rumors of widespread cheating in Colorado elections has never been substantiated. A thread staunchly denied by county clerks throughout the state, most of them Republican. 
Peters was prosecuted by an elected Republican district attorney, and the three supervisors in her conservative-leaning county also supported the case and defended the integrity of the state´s elections.

Prosecutors accused Peters of unauthorized user access to sensitive election data in her office by swiping someone else’s security badge. Confidential information from her office subsequently was released online, as Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell [photo], tried to prove the ‘stolen’ mandate

Despite the veiled threat of ‘harsh measures!!!!’, Trump did not specify what specific retribution would befall Colorado’s politicians if Peters is not released

This is not the first time Trump has tried to push for Peters to be released since taking office. 
Back in May, the president directed the U.S. Department of Justice ‘to take all necessary action to help secure the release’ of Peters.
In August Trump issued the first threat against those involved in the conviction of Peters, the first election official in the country to be found guilty on charges relating to attempts to prove Trump’s claims that his mandate was stolen.
The 69-year-old official is currently serving out a nine year jail sentence after prosecutors claimed that she gave an unauthorized user access to sensitive election data in her office by swiping someone else’s security badge.
The information taken from her office soon appeared online, released by Trump ally, the ‘MyPillow guy’ Mike Lindell, in a bid to prove the election outcome was manipulated.
In May 2021 prosecutors said, Peters provided an unauthorized individual, Conan Hayes, access to the Mesa county election system during a software update. Hayes, posing a employee of the county clerk’s office, used his badge to make copies of Dominion Voting Systems hard drives. 
Prosecutors allege both Peters and Hayes believed information on the hard drives would prove machine voting had stolen the election from candidate Trump.  
At the conclusion of trial in August 2024, Peters was found guilty of seven charges – three counts of attempting to influence a public official, violation of duty, official misconduct, failure to comply with an order from the Colorado secretary of state, and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. 
Despite her conviction, Peters during her sentencing hearing maintained she is innocent while promoting the claim the election was stolen.
‘I’m not a criminal, and I don’t deserve to go to a prison where other people committed heinous crimes,’ she said.