Tina Peters Released From Colorado Prison After Donald Trump Pressured Gov. Jared Polis

Tina Peters, a former Colorado election clerk convicted of allowing election machine tampering, was released from state prison on Monday after United States President Donald Trump pressured Colorado’s Democratic governor into commuting her sentence.

Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the release “will embolden the election denial movement,” warning that since the clemency announcement Peters “has continued to spread election falsehoods and conspiracies.”

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Peters, 70, had been sentenced to nine years in state prison in October 2024 after jurors convicted her of participating in a scheme to chase election conspiracy theories promulgated by President Donald Trump.

The Colorado Department of Corrections confirmed her release and said it would have no more information about the 70-year-old inmate, while Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence last month after Trump waged a lengthy pressure campaign against the governor and his state.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that the commutation cut Peters’ sentence in half and that she was processed for release from CDOC custody on June 1, 2026, with parole for three years.

The Associated Press said Peters was the first local election official to be charged with breaching security after the 2020 election, and it described how she “snuck in an outside computer expert affiliated with My Pillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell.”

The PBS/AP account said Polis commuted her sentence after Trump pressured him, and it noted that Peters served less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence.

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Griswold also warned that the governor’s clemency was “an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country,” adding that it “sends a dangerous message about accountability for those who would attack elections.”

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, one of the candidates to replace Polis, said “Lawlessness only breeds more lawlessness,” arguing Peters should still be incarcerated.

In a post on Substack, Polis defended his decision to commute Peters’ sentence as “unduly long,” while the Colorado Court of Appeals had ordered resentencing after finding the judge improperly considered part of Peters’ protected speech.

After her release, Peters was interviewed by Steve Bannon, and she repeated claims that the 2020 election had been stolen while maintaining her prosecution was politically motivated.

The Colorado Sun reported that corrections officials remained tight-lipped, with Alondra Gonzalez saying officials won’t say when she was released or provide details about her whereabouts or plans upon release, but it said parole conditions require Peters to seek her parole officer’s permission before leaving the state.

The Colorado Sun also said Peters was imprisoned since 2024 after she “sneaked an outside election denier into the off-limits Mesa County Elections Division office so he could copy the hard drive from the county’s voting system.”

KKTV reported that Polis commuted Peters’ sentence from nine years to four-and-a-half years and made her eligible for release June 1, while noting it does not overturn her convictions.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, “Tina Peters may be free from prison, but she isn't free from the crimes she committed tampering with her county's election equipment,” and said he would continue to fight Peters’ efforts to overturn her convictions in the courts.