Colorado Governor Jared Polis has commuted the sentence of election conspiracy theorist Tina Peters, a decision following pressure from President Donald Trump. This aligns with President Trump’s pattern of rewarding those who echoed his baseless claims of mass fraud as the cause of his 2020 election loss.
Peters, a 70-year-old former county clerk, was sentenced to nine years for a scheme to illegally copy her county’s election computer system. She is scheduled for release on June 1.
Her conviction was upheld by a Colorado appeals court in April, though the court ordered a resentencing. The court found the judge wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud, a decision Governor Polis praised.
In a letter to Peters, Governor Polis acknowledged she was convicted of serious crimes and “deserved to spend time in prison.” However, he added, “this is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.”
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He added Peters’ application “demonstrates taking responsibility for your crimes, and a commitment to follow the law going forward.”
President Donald Trump posted around the time of the announcement on his Truth Social platform: “FREE TINA!”
‘Affront to the rule of law’
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said “it was a dark day for democracy” and ”selling out our state’s justice system for Trump is an affront to the rule of law.”
“A clear message is being sent to those willing to break the law and attack democracy for the president — they will likely not face consequences for their actions,” Griswold said at a news conference.
Peters has been serving her sentence at a prison in Pueblo after being convicted in 2024 by jurors in Mesa County, a Republican stronghold that supported Trump.
Peters snuck in an outside computer expert, an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, to make a copy of her county’s Dominion Voting Systems election computer server as state officials updated it in 2021. After Peters joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” that promised to reveal proof of election rigging, video and photos of the upgrade, including passwords, were posted online.
After the commutation, Peters issued a statement through her attorney thanking Polis and apologizing.
“Five years ago I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong,” Peters said. “I have learned and grown during my time in prison and going forward I will make sure that my actions always follow the law, and I will avoid the mistakes of the past.”
She also condemned threats and violence against voters, county clerks and election workers.
Sen Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for Colorado governor, said he vehemently disagreed with the commutation and that Peters knowingly broke the law, undermined elections and was convicted by a jury.
“Lawlessness only breeds more lawlessness,” Bennet said. “With President Trump continuing to attack Colorado, we must do everything we can to stand strong for our institutions and the rule of law.”
Trump championed her cause
Peters was convicted of state, not federal, crimes, which put her beyond the reach of Trump’s pardon power that he used to free those convicted of crimes for the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. But the president still championed her cause.
Trump has lambasted both Polis, calling him a “Scumbag Governor,” and the Republican district attorney who prosecuted her, Daniel Rubinstein, for keeping Peters in prison. He has referred to Peters, as “elderly” and “sick.” Earlier this year, Trump uninvited Polis from a White House meeting with governors over the case.
The president said Colorado was “suffering a big price” for refusing to release her. His administration has been choking off funds, ending federal programs and denying disaster aid. It also announced the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and relocated the U.S. Space Command to Alabama.
Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said the commutation “signals that it is open season on our election and election officials.”
“Gov. Polis is bending the knee to the same political voices and conspiracy theories that are undermining belief in our democratic institutions,” Crane said. “This is now Gov. Polis’ legacy. He will not be able to run from it.”
Tina Peters’ declining health in prison
Peters’ lawyers have said her health has declined in prison. Peters, who had part of her right lung removed in 2017, started coughing frequently after the prison’s heating system was turned on for the winter and has had trouble sleeping on her mattress because of chronic pain from fibromyalgia, her lawyers said.
In January, Peters was involved in a scuffle with another inmate but was found not guilty of assault following a prison disciplinary hearing, Colorado Department of Corrections spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia said. Peters was found guilty of being in a location without authorization.
The federal Bureau of Prisons tried but failed to get Peters moved to a federal prison. But in January, Polis said he was considering granting clemency for Peters, calling her sentence “unusual and harsh“ for a first-time, nonviolent offender. In March he repeated those arguments in a lengthy post on the social media platform X.
“Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly,” Polis wrote.
After receiving blowback from other top Democratic leaders in the state, including the attorney general and Colorado’s top elections official, Polis told a Denver television station that Peters would have to show “appropriate contrition, apology” to be considered for clemency.
In contrast to some other Democratic governors, Polis, who prides himself on being a political iconoclast, has taken a sometimes accommodating stance toward Trump. While he criticized Trump’s stance on tariffs and immigration, Polis praised earlier moves by the president such as the Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, and the nomination of vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Service.
