Trump again calls for release of ex-clerk in prison for role in breaching Colorado election information

Donald Trump again called for the release of a former election clerk in Colorado who was convicted for her role in breaching election data in a quest to find fraud, threatening he would take “harsh measures” if she wasn’t let out of prison.

“FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians, including the big Mail-In Ballot supporting the governor of the State,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election. She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!”

Peters did not find evidence of Democrats cheating in the election.

She was charged for allowing access to county voting equipment by an outside election activist, who was given security credentials under a different name. Materials and passwords were then published online on Telegram and on the rightwing outlet the Gateway Pundit.

She was found guilty by a jury in Mesa county in 2024 of seven counts related to misconduct, conspiracy and impersonation, four of which were felony charges. She was sentenced later that year to nine years in prison. Her attorneys had argued for probation instead of prison time.

In her sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett said Peters hadn’t shown remorse for her actions. He said she was “as defiant as a defendant that the court has ever seen” and that he was “convinced you’d do it all over again if you could”.

Peters’ release has become a rallying cry on the right, especially among election deniers. Voice messages from her have appeared on rightwing podcasts in which she continues to advance election conspiracies.

Peters’ attorneys have filed an appeal of her conviction and are seeking to get her out on bond while the appeal plays out, arguing in a federal habeas corpus petition that her bond denial stems from her exercise of first amendment rights. Her lawyer told Colorado Newsline that she “has been made to stay in prison because people are afraid of what she would say”.

Trump has previously called for Peters’ release, in May saying in social media posts that she was a “innocent Political Prisoner” who was part of a “Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020”.

Because Peters is convicted of state-level crimes, Trump cannot pardon her; the Colorado governor, Democrat Jared Polis, could. Trump’s justice department submitted a court filing in March saying it would be reviewing the case for potential “abuses of the criminal justice process”.

Dan Rubinstein, the Republican district attorney in Mesa county who prosecuted the case, noted in a statement to the Guardian that the county is one of Colorado’s most conservative, with an all-Republican board of county commissioners who requested to prosecute Peters.

“It is a gross mischaracterization of the facts of the case to claim Ms Peters did nothing wrong, after she cost the citizens of Mesa county, Colorado, more than a million dollars as a result of her criminal acts,” Rubinstein said. “Ms Peters was indicted by a grand jury of her peers, and convicted unanimously, with a standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, at a trial by a jury of her peers that she selected.”