President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday Truth social rant that he would be pardoning the former Colorado elections clerk convicted of trying to overturn the 2020 election. But the pardon itself carries little force.
After accusing Democrats of “ignor[ing] violent and vicious crime of all shapes, sizes, colors, and types,” the president announced that he would be pardoning Tina Peters.
“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 wrote in the post.
“Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections. Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”
Peters was convicted of seven charges, including tampering with voting machines, in 2024, having granted unauthorized individuals access to Mesa County voting machines in order to transfer data to Trump allies. She was then sentenced to nine years in prison.
Shortly after returning to the White House, the Trump administration took up her cause, with the Department of Justice going so far as to support her attempt to challenge her imprisonment on constitutional grounds.
Earlier this month, the president criticized Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for refusing to allow an “elderly woman,” Peters, out of jail, in a scathing Truth Social post. At 70, Peters is nine years younger than Trump himself.
“The SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters, who was unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do, cheating on Elections, out of jail!” Trump wrote. “She was convicted for trying to stop Democrats from stealing Colorado Votes in the Election.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed Peters’ habeas corpus petition challenging her imprisonment as she awaits the outcome of her appeal, citing a Supreme Court case that prohibits federal courts from interfering with ongoing state criminal proceedings except in extraordinary circumstances.
The fact that Peters was convicted on state charges, not federal, also means that her charges are not pardonable by Trump, something reporters were quick to point out, with Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney calling the pardon “largely symbolic” as a result.
Peters’ attorney, Peter Ticktin, had not been informed beforehand, according to PBS White House Correspondent Elizabeth Landers. He also said the news was “freaking fantastic.” He had sent a plea to the president just days earlier.
Asked by Landers whether he thought the presidential pardon was legal or would break precedent, Ticktin said that “the Constitution really needs to be read and understood” through “the eyes of the founders and what did they mean when they wrote it.”
In his nine-page letter to Trump asking for the president to pardon his client, Ticktin wrote, “The question of whether a president can pardon for state offenses has never been raised in any court.”
The president’s decision to attempt to grant a pardon will likely result in a legal battle on the question of whether the Constitution grants the president the power to pardon people for state crimes in addition to federal.
In a Thursday night interview with 9News’ Kyle Clark, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called the president’s attempted pardon of Peters a “lawless act,” adding, “It’s an act of intimidation. It has no basis in American law.”
“This president doesn’t respect the rule of law, but he doesn’t have authority to undermine how we operate our judicial system here in Colorado.”
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