Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) plans to grant clemency to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a prominent election denier serving a lengthy prison sentence for breaching election security equipment in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, according to multiple reports Friday.
Peters, 70, was sentenced in 2024 to nine years in prison after a jury convicted her on several felony and misdemeanor charges tied to a scheme to copy sensitive election system data from Mesa County voting equipment during a 2021 software update.
Prosecutors said Peters allowed an outside computer expert affiliated with allies of President Donald Trump to gain unauthorized access to county systems. Passwords and election data were later spread online and promoted at events, alleging that the 2020 election had been rigged.
Polis had increasingly signaled he was weighing clemency after a Colorado appeals court last month upheld Peters’ convictions but ordered her resentencing, ruling the trial judge improperly considered her public statements while imposing punishment. The court did not overturn the underlying guilty verdicts.
The governor had publicly questioned whether Peters’ nine-year sentence was too hard for a first-time, nonviolent offender.
Trump had repeatedly called for Peters’ release, at one point claiming he had pardoned her, though presidents cannot pardon state convictions. Trump also publicly pressured Polis to intervene in the case. The president posted to Truth Social on Friday: “FREE TINA!”
Polis said he plans to release Tina Peters over free speech concerns rather than Trump’s pressure.
“There should be no consideration of what we say, how unpopular it is, how inaccurate it is in sentencing or in criminal proceedings,” he told CNN.
He added that Trump frequently gets information about Peters wrong, and the president had reached out to him privately regarding the case.
“He gets her age wrong,” Polis said to CNN. “He gets what she did wrong. My focus was doing what’s right and then looking at the merits of the case.”
Polis had said that Peters acknowledged wrongdoing for the first time in her clemency application.
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“I made a mistake four years ago,” Peters said. “I misled the secretary of state when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong. Going forward, I will make sure that my actions always follow the law.”
Peters had been serving her sentence at a state prison in Pueblo. Under Polis’ expected clemency order, her release date is anticipated to be moved up to June 1.
