President Trump said Thursday he is granting a pardon to Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk serving a nine-year state sentence for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines. Legal experts and state officials, however, said the president lacks the authority to pardon individuals convicted of state 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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, although Peters was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections.”
Trump said Peters was trying to expose alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election. Peters, who ran unsuccessfully for Colorado secretary of state, promoted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold responded in a statement, saying, “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.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, “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.”
Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted in state court in 2023 on seven counts, including attempting to influence a public servant and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was sentenced in October 2024.
Prosecutors said Peters and others in 2021 orchestrated a scheme that allowed an unauthorized person to access Mesa County voting machines. Images from the machines later appeared online. Peters, who publicly aligned with national figures alleging voting machine manipulation, has denied wrongdoing.
At her sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett called Peters a “charlatan” and described her as highly defiant. In court, Peters said she had “never done anything with malice to break the law.”
Earlier this week, a federal magistrate judge denied Peters’ request to be released while she appeals her conviction.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday, “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. No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions.”
Trump has expressed interest in Peters’ case since last year, warning in August that he would take unspecified action if she weren’t released. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Prisons asked Colorado officials to transfer her to federal custody, prompting resistance from state leaders.
Peters’ lawyer, Peter Ticktin, argued in a letter last week that Trump may hold the power to pardon her. He acknowledged that the issue “has never been raised in any court.”
In a statement Thursday, Ticktin thanked Trump and said Peters “needs to be released while the issues are being resolved,” including the legal status of the pardon. “He has always been true to his beliefs and continues to fight against injustice. God bless our President,” he said.
Trump has issued pardons or commutations to others who supported his false claims about the 2020 election. In January, he pardoned individuals convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Last month, he pardoned several people accused in state proceedings related to the 2020 election, including “alternate electors” and former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
