Trump Orders DOJ to ‘Secure the Release’ of Convicted Election Denier Tina Peters
President Donald Trump posted on TruthSocial Monday night that he’s directing the U.S. Department of Justice “to take all necessary action to help secure the release” of Tina Peters.
The former GOP local election clerk in Colorado was sentenced to nine years in prison in October for her role in a voting system data breach, in a failed attempt to find voter fraud.
In March, the DOJ filed a statement of interest to review Peters’ conviction, writing that she “suffers from serious health issues and … while incarcerated, her physical and mental health have deteriorated.”
In 2021, Peters — an avowed election denier with ties to renowned conspiracy theorist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — allowed unauthorized people into the Mesa County election office and used the stolen identity of a software engineer to copy sensitive election data to post online.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) first launched an investigation into the Mesa County election office when QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins posted screenshots and videos of a Mesa County voting machine.
Peters was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and a slew of misdemeanors.
The Colorado judge who sentenced Peters last year did not mince words in throwing the book at her:
“You are no hero, you abused your position and you’re a charlatan who used, and is still using, your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again,” Colorado District Judge Matthew Barrett said.
“I’m convinced you’d do it all over again if you could,” Barrett added. “You are a privileged person. You are as privileged as they come. You used that for power and fame.”
After she was indicted, Peters became something of a folk hero amongst Trump and the MAGA crowd — and she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Colorado Secretary of State.
Douglas Frank, a prominent election denier who traveled around the country to promote 2020 election conspiracies, defended her at her sentencing.
“I am uniquely qualified to judge Tina Peters’ state of mind,” Frank said. “It boggles my mind that a Gold Star mother is subjected to this tyranny. I implore you to restore Tina Peters’ God-given liberty.”
Lindell claimed he donated at least $800,000 to Peters’ legal defense fund. And the day after she was convicted, Peters appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast where she continued to spout election conspiracies.
“You know, I’m going to keep speaking out about the injustice, about what’s going on in these big multinational global corporations that have these vote flipping software, that is basically, is in Serbia,” she told Bannon. “We’ve already shown that people in my, that I’m accused of influencing, there’s emails between them and Serbia and Serbia Dominion employees.”
After Trump’s return to the White House, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said she previously sent a formal request to the FBI “to look into the sentencing and treatment of Tina Peters.”
Peters was convicted on state charges, so it’s not clear what the DOJ could do to secure her release. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) in March called the DOJ’s effort to intervene in the case a “grotesque attempt to weaponize the rule of law.”“The United States cites not a single fact to support its baseless allegations that there are any reasonable concerns about Ms. Peters’ prosecution or sentence, or that the prosecution was politically motivated,” Weiser said.