After pressure from Trump, Colorado gov. signals possible clemency for election denier Tina Peters

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said he’s considering clemency for Tina Peters, the former election official serving a nine-year state prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system breach. 

Polis’ openness to clemency for Peters comes after months of escalating retaliation from President Donald Trump against the state of Colorado, driven by the Peters issue. 

“FREE TINA PETERS”, Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday evening. 

“She got a sentence that was harsh. It was a 9 year sentence,” Polis said in an interview Thursday. “So we always look at people’s sentences. And when you have people that are elderly, and we’re looking at this across a number of many people — people in their 70s or 80s in our system — how much of a threat to society are they and how do we balance that in a way that makes sure they can spend their last year few years at home?”

Just weeks earlier, after Trump issued a symbolic, unenforceable pardon claiming to wipe away Peters’ state convictions. Polis rejected the move outright.

“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 in a statement. “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.”

Polis’ position aligned with long-standing constitutional doctrine and with the expectations of voters who view Peters’ prosecution as a rare and necessary instance of accountability for election interference in the 2020 election.

After Colorado officials refused to release Peters, the Trump administration moved to block or withdraw federal funding, dismantled research programs and relocated key federal assets — including U.S. Space Command — away from the state. Colorado’s attorney general has described the actions as an unprecedented campaign of retaliation designed to force compliance.

Pressure to release Peters is not coming from Trump alone. Peters’ case has become a rallying point for far-right extremists who are increasingly using violent rhetoric to demand her release, framing her imprisonment as illegitimate and threatening direct actions against Polis and other Colorado officials.  

Last fall, Polis explicitly warned against trading justice for political relief.

“In a past version of America, people have gone to jail for that,” Polis said, referring to the idea of exchanging Peters’ release for federal concessions. “Isn’t that something people should go to jail for? If that happens, I mean, that’s the America we need to get back to.”

Importantly, clemency would not overturn Peters’ conviction or validate her debunked claims about election fraud. It would instead shorten or end her sentence — a discretionary power governors can use even when the underlying verdict stands. Still, for many pro-democracy advocates, the distinction may offer little comfort.

Peters was convicted by a jury after prosecutors showed she enabled unauthorized access to election equipment and helped leak sensitive voting system data — actions election officials say endangered trust in democratic infrastructure nationwide. Her case has been repeatedly invoked by election deniers as proof that accountability itself is partisan persecution.

Polis has not announced a final decision, and no clemency order has yet been issued.