President Trump mentioned Thursday night he’s granting a pardon to Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who’s serving a nine-year state sentence for permitting unauthorized entry to voting machines — though the president’s pardon energy is broadly understood to solely apply to federal crimes.
“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,” the president claimed on Fact Social, although Peters was prosecuted by an elected Republican district lawyer. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections.”
Mr. Trump claimed Peters was making an attempt to “expose Voter Fraud” in 2020. The president has lengthy insisted, with out proof, that he misplaced the 2020 race resulting from fraud, claims that had been promoted by Peters, a onetime candidate for Colorado secretary of state.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold mentioned in an announcement Thursday that “Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers for state crimes in a state Court. Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”
“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 Lawyer Basic Phil Weiser mentioned in a separate assertion. “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.”
A former Mesa County clerk, Peters was convicted in state court docket final yr on seven prices, together with three counts of making an attempt to affect a public servant and one depend of conspiracy to commit prison impersonation. She was sentenced in October 2024.
Tina Peters
Mesa County
Prosecutors have alleged that in 2021, Peters and others “devised and executed a deceptive scheme” to trigger an unauthorized individual to entry Mesa County voting machines. Photos from the county’s voting gear later confirmed up on-line. Prosecutors mentioned that Peters — who was aligned with nationwide figures who’ve falsely claimed that voting machines had been rigged in 2020 — grew to become “fixated” on alleged voting issues.
At a sentencing listening to late final yr, Choose Matthew Barrett referred to as Peters a “charlatan” and “as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen.” Peters has denied wrongdoing, and she or he insisted earlier than her sentencing that she had “never done anything with malice to break the law.”
Earlier this week, a federal Justice of the Peace choose rejected Peters’ request to be launched whereas she appeals her conviction.
“Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and in a Republican county of Colorado and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws including criminal impersonation,” Democratic Gov. Jared Polis mentioned in an announcement Thursday. “No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions. This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”
Mr. Trump has taken an curiosity in Peters’ case, warning in August that he would take “harsh measures” if she wasn’t set free of state custody. The Federal Bureau of Prisons requested the state of Colorado final month to switch her to federal custody, drawing pushback from state officers and requires Polis to disclaim the request.
In the meantime, an lawyer representing Peters argued in a letter final week that Mr. Trump might have the ability to pardon the previous Mesa County clerk.
Underneath the Structure, the president’s pardon energy applies to “Offences against the United States,” which is sort of universally understood to not embody state crimes. However Peters’ lawyer, Peter Ticktin, laid out a idea that the ability might prolong to the states. Ticktin acknowledged that the problem “has never been raised in any court.”
In an announcement late Thursday, Ticktin thanked Mr. Trump and argued that Peters “needs to be released while the issues are being resolved,” together with whereas courts weigh whether or not she needs to be launched because of the president’s pardon.
Mr. Trump has intervened on behalf of others who again his false election fraud claims. Shortly after his inauguration in January, Mr. Trump provided pardons or commutations to all people convicted within the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president additionally granted pardons final month to dozens of individuals accused in state court docket of making an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, together with “alternate state electors” and his former private lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
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