FILE – Candidate Tina Peters speaks during a debate for the state leadership position, Feb. 25, 2023, in Hudson, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) 
President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
DENVER | President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s pardon power does not extend to state crimes like those for which Peters was convicted last year and sentenced to nine years in prison.
“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump said in a social media post that repeated his false claims of election fraud.
“Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers for state crimes in a state Court,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement. “Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”
Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted of allowing a man to misuse a security card to access the election system and being deceptive about that person’s identity. The man was affiliated with MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.
The pardon underscores Trump’s continued efforts to promote the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him even though courts around the country and Trump’s own attorney general at the time found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome. Reviews, recounts and audits of the election in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss also affirmed Joe Biden’s victory.
“One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. “The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”
Trump issued similar symbolic pardons last month for his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and dozens of others charged in state courts with backing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Peters has been unapologetic about what happened, and her case has become a cause célèbre in the election conspiracy movement. Her allies have for months pressured Trump to try to free her from prison. His administration last month tried to have Peters moved from state to federal prison. State officials oppose the transfer.
A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected her bid to be released from prison while she appeals her state conviction.
Not sure the President is doing Tina Peters any favors by trying to pardon her. The level of hatred of Donald Trump by the political left is so extreme that watching him squirm is seen as reason enough to enforce every last day of her sentence.
Polis is flushing his political future down the drain refusing to pardon her, if he ever tried running for president. She is clearly a political prisoner, and he has the power to make it right.
Get a grip, GOP! Are states rights sovreign or not? For years Republicans have argued that states have the right to govern the law in their territory (when it’s convenient). Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 is pretty clear in the Constitution about states controlling elections and the laws thereof. The Supreme Court has a long history of strengthening this clause, not weakening it. The only person pushing a lie is Trump simply because he cannot accept defeat. He’s always been that fat bully on the playground who won’t shake hands and say “good game” after a defeat. For crying out loud, 3rd graders can do it and so should someone entrusted as president! Peters was a vigilante – she was not following any proven groundswell of election tampering; she got caught up in Trump’s tantrum and violated her oath to protect Colorado’s election system. Courts all over rejected Trump’s claims. It was the most secure that any election can be. This is not Trump’s system, it is ours! Peter’s reduced herself to nothing but a dingleberry on Trump’s behind and should serve her well-deserved sentence!