Tina Peters Released Early After Trump Pressures Colorado Governor to Commute Sentence

Tina Peters, convicted of tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election, was freed Monday after Gov. Jared Polis shortened her nine-year prison term.

Colorado Election Clerk Walks Free After Governor Cuts Nine-Year Term

Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of breaching election security, was released from a Colorado prison Monday after serving less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence, NPR National reports. Governor Jared Polis commuted her sentence on May 15 following sustained pressure from President Donald Trump.

The Colorado Department of Corrections confirmed Peters' release but said it would provide no further details about the 70-year-old. Polis wrote in his commutation letter that although Peters had been convicted of serious crimes and deserved prison time, the sentence was "extremely unusual and lengthy" for a first-time non-violent offender.

Peters was the first local election official charged with a security breach tied to the 2020 election. She smuggled an outside computer expert affiliated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell into Mesa County offices, where he copied the county's Dominion Voting Systems server during a routine software update in 2021. Video footage and passwords from the server were subsequently posted online, fueling false claims that voting machines had been manipulated to hand the election to Joe Biden.

Peters then appeared onstage with Lindell at a so-called "cybersymposium" that promised to deliver proof the election had been stolen from Trump. No such proof was presented.

In 2024, a jury in Mesa County — a Republican stronghold that backed Trump — convicted Peters of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, and related charges. An appeals court upheld the conviction in April but ordered resentencing, ruling that the original judge had improperly penalized Peters for publicly discussing election fraud claims.

Because Peters was prosecuted under state law, Trump lacked the authority to pardon her directly. Instead, he waged what NPR National describes as a lengthy pressure campaign against Polis: criticizing the Democratic governor on social media, withdrawing an invitation to a White House meeting with other governors, and announcing plans to relocate the U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama and dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the state.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, issued a statement Monday warning that Peters' release would "embolden the election denier movement." Griswold added that since the clemency announcement, Peters "has continued to spread election falsehoods and conspiracies."

Source: NPR National