This article is from Colorado Newsline.
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on Monday used the new freedom granted to her by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to promptly renew her baseless allegations of widespread election fraud, casting doubt on the legitimacy of recent Democratic victories and the upcoming midterm elections.
Peters, 70, was convicted in August 2024 on multiple felony counts related to a 2021 breach of her office’s secure elections equipment in a failed attempt to uncover evidence of fraud. She was sentenced by a Mesa County judge to nine years in state prison, but Polis’ commutation of her sentence on May 15, which came under pressure from President Donald Trump and Peters’ other allies in the election conspiracy theory movement, freed her after just 20 months.
The Colorado Department of Corrections confirmed Peters’ release in a brief statement Monday, adding that it “will not provide additional details regarding residential placement, reporting schedules, or travel logistics.”
Within hours of her release, Peters appeared on a podcast hosted by far-right pundit and Trump ally Steve Bannon, where she called her release a “miracle” and thanked her supporters — but soon pivoted to renewed attacks on the integrity of U.S. elections, pointing specifically to recent Democratic victories in New York City and Virginia, along with crucial midterm contests underway in Texas and Maine.
“I know that the Democrats are going to cheat,” Peters said. “No one’s really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for, and that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped.”
“I’m very concerned and burdened with why no one is talking about this,” she continued.
Peters’ belief that compromised voting machines cost Trump the 2020 election, prosecutors said, led her to participate in a scheme in May 2021 to allow an unauthorized person to enter Mesa County’s elections department, make copies of election system software and capture images of passwords and other sensitive data. A Mesa County jury found her guilty on four felony and three misdemeanor counts related to the scheme.
Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement, the courts and Trump’s own campaign and administration officials.
‘An affront to our democracy’
Polis, a Democrat, issued his commutation of Peters’ sentence last month in spite of the fact that a Colorado appeals court had already ordered her to be resentenced, over concerns that the sentence handed down by District Court Judge Matthew Barrett — who called Peters a “charlatan” who peddled “snake oil,” and referred to her efforts to “undermine the integrity of our elections and public’s trust in our institutions” — had violated her right to free speech.
Polis cited those same free speech concerns in justifying his clemency action — and reiterated those concerns in a Substack post on Sunday — but also said days later that he made his decision because “the nation needs to have a reconciliation and healing.”
His commutation order followed more than a year of pressure from the Trump administration to secure Peters’ release, which included a federal pardon signed by Trump, which had no effect on Peters’ state-level convictions; a rejected request for her transfer to federal custody; and coercive measures like Trump’s veto of a unanimously passed bill to fund a southern Colorado water project and the denial of two disaster declaration requests.
Polis has been roundly criticized by members of his own party for his decision, and the Colorado Democratic Party’s central committee voted to formally censure him last month. The commutation was also condemned by Dan Rubinstein, the Republican district attorney who prosecuted Peters, and the GOP-dominated Colorado County Clerks Association.
In a statement Monday, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold called Peters’ release “an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country.”
“It sends a dangerous message about accountability for those who would attack elections,” Griswold said. “Peters’ release also will embolden the election denial movement; since the grant of clemency, she has continued to spread election falsehoods and conspiracies.”
Soliciting donations
Peters had been serving her sentence at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. In a written statement Monday, Peter Ticktin, an attorney for Peters, thanked the facility’s warden for a release that he said was “like clockwork.”
“He took no chances and had her moved before the press showed up,” Ticktin said.
He added that Peters “will be making personal decisions as to many factors in the coming weeks.”
With her release on parole, Peters is subject to “a release plan or residence plan” coordinated by the Department of Corrections’ Division of Adult Parole, officials previously told Newsline. The parole board sets the conditions of Peters’ release “parole based on statutory requirements, public safety, and an offender’s standardized risk assessments.”
Appearing on Bannon’s podcast, where a graphic described her as a “former political prisoner,” Peters and an associate, far-right media figure Apollo Papas, urged supporters to visit her website and contribute to her legal defense fund — or “support her personally, just to help her get back on her feet,” Papas said.
“I still have a fight to go,” Peters said. “Even though Gov. Polis reduced my sentence … I still have a fight to clear my name and bring out the truth of why they came after me the way they did.”
