Colorado's Democratic governor commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters'
sentence after Trump pressure
[May 16, 2026]
By COLLEEN SLEVIN and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
DENVER (AP) — 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.
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’s election computer system. She
gets released June 1.
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.
In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that Peters was convicted of serious
crimes and deserved to spend time in prison. “However, this is an
extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who
committed nonviolent crimes,” the governor wrote.
He added Peters' application “demonstrates taking responsibility for
your crimes, and a commitment to follow the law going forward.”
President Donald Trump posted around the time of the announcement on his
Truth Social platform: “FREE TINA!”
‘Affront to the rule of law’
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said “it was a
dark day for democracy” and ”selling out our state’s justice system for
Trump is an affront to the rule of law.”
“A clear message is being sent to those willing to break the law and
attack democracy for the president — they will likely not face
consequences for their actions,” Griswold said at a news conference.
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.
Peters snuck in an outside computer expert, an associate of MyPillow CEO
Mike Lindell, to make a copy of her county’s Dominion Voting Systems
election computer server as state officials updated it in 2021. After
Peters joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” that promised to
reveal proof of election rigging, video and photos of the upgrade,
including passwords, were posted online.
After the commutation, Peters issued a statement through her attorney
thanking Polis and apologizing.
“Five years ago I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person
to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong,” Peters said.
“I 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.”
She also condemned threats and violence against voters, county clerks
and election workers.
Gubernatorial candidates weigh in
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.
“Lawlessness only breeds more lawlessness,” 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.”
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.
“A commutation or pardon by a governor should be reserved for truly
extraordinary circumstances," Kirkmeyer wrote in a statement. “The
governor has a responsibility to apply justice fairly, consistently, and
without bias.”
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Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters smiles at
supporters sitting behind her during her sentencing for her election
interference case at the Mesa County District Court, Thursday, Oct.
3, 2024, in Grand Junction, Colo. (Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction
Daily Sentinel via AP, File)
Trump championed her cause
Peters was convicted of state, not federal, crimes, which put her
beyond the reach of Trump’s 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.
Trump has lambasted both Polis, calling him a “Scumbag Governor,”
and the Republican district attorney who prosecuted her, Daniel
Rubinstein, for keeping Peters in prison. He has referred to Peters,
as “elderly” and “sick.” Earlier this year, Trump uninvited Polis
from a White House meeting with governors over the case.
The president said Colorado was “suffering a big price” 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.
Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks
Association, said the commutation “signals that it is open season on
our election and election officials.”
“Gov. Polis is bending the knee to the same political voices and
conspiracy theories that are undermining belief in our democratic
institutions,” Crane said. “This is now Gov. Polis’ legacy. He will
not be able to run from it.”
Tina Peters' declining health in prison
Peters’ 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’s 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.
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.
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 “unusual and
harsh“ for a first-time, nonviolent offender. In March he repeated
those arguments in a lengthy post on the social media platform X.
Polis defended his decision on Friday in a social media post.
“I’ll 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.
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’s
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.
____
Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Jacques Billeaud
in Phoenix and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.
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