Trump Announces Total Pardon for Convicted Colorado Clerk Tina Peters

Donald Trump announced a “indulto total” for Tina Peters, a woman convicted by Colorado authorities, while Colorado leaders said the president lacks power to pardon state crimes.

Univision quotes Trump saying “concediendo a Tina un indulto total por sus intentos de exponer el fraude electoral en las amañadas elecciones presidenciales de 2020,” and also quoting him writing “Tina está en una prisión de Colorado por el ‘delito’ de exigir elecciones honestas.”

CBS News

The Univision account says Peters, 70, was secretary of the Mesa County clerk and in August 2024 was sentenced to 9 years for charges tied to attempts to interfere with the 2020 election, after she gave access to election software used in her county to someone with links to MyPillow’s CEO.

The Guardian reports that Peters was found guilty in a jury verdict returned Monday in a breach-of-system case, after prosecutors said she used someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa county election system.

In the Guardian’s account, prosecutor Janet Drake said the former clerk allowed a man posing as a county employee to take images of the election system’s hard drive before and after a software upgrade in May 2021.

Colorado’s top officials condemned Trump’s clemency move, with Phil Weiser saying in a statement that “los estados tienen soberanía independiente y gestionan sus propios sistemas de justicia penal sin interferencia del gobierno federal.”

Univision also quotes Weiser adding that “La idea de que un presidente pudiera indultar a alguien juzgado y condenado en un tribunal estatal no tiene precedentes en la ley estadounidense.”

CNN

The Guardian’s courtroom narrative centers on the Mesa County election system breach case, where defense lawyer John Case told jurors Peters had not committed crimes and only wanted to preserve election records after the county would not allow her to have one of its technology experts present at the software update.

The Guardian includes prosecutor Janet Drake’s characterization of Peters’ role, saying “The defendant was a fox guarding the henhouse. It was her job to protect the election equipment, and she turned on it and used her power for her own advantage,” and it identifies Mike Lindell as a promoter of false claims about the 2020 election.

The Guardian further reports that Peters allowed Conan Hayes, “affiliated with Lindell,” to observe the software update and make copies of the hard drive using the security badge of a local man, Gerald Wood, who Peters said worked for her.

Separate from Trump’s announced “indulto total,” multiple outlets describe Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuting Tina Peters’ sentence and making her eligible for parole on June 1, with NPR saying Polis reduced her state prison term to allow parole “on June 1.”

NPR quotes Polis saying, “And in this case there is absolutely both the appearance and frankly, I believe the likelihood that her speech was considered in her sentencing,” and NPR says Polis focused on the facts rather than whether he agreed with Peters’ speech.

The Denver Post reports that Polis wrote in a letter to Peters that she will “be released on parole effective June 1, 2026,” after reducing her original sentence of nearly nine years to about 4.5 years.

CBS News says the decision “does not wipe away her conviction,” and it lists that Peters was facing charges including attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and official misconduct.

CBS News also records Trump’s reaction on Truth Social with the line “FREE TINA!” while Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold condemned the commutation as a “gross injustice to our elections, election workers and democracy with far reaching consequences.”