President Donald Trump escalated the federal attempt to upend Colorado’s prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in a social media post Monday night.
“Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” he wrote.
In the post, Trump directed the U.S. Department of Justice to “take all necessary action to help secure the release of former Mesa county clerk Tina Peters,” referring to her as a hostage that was “being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons.”
“FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!” Trump wrote to punctuate the message.
In August, Peters was found guilty by a jury of Mesa County residents on seven counts, including four felonies, after she helped facilitate unauthorized access to county voting equipment that she was supposed to safeguard in search of voter fraud. Despite years of investigation and attention from election conspiracy groups, neither her supporters nor her legal defense have ever shown that the machines were involved in any sort of election manipulation.
Trump’s online proclamation is the latest step in a growing federal effort to free Peters. In March, the Department of Justice went to court in a bid to help Peters and potentially free her from custody. Attorneys for the state of Colorado have asked a federal judge to reject the Justice Department’s filings. The judge said at the hearing that he will rule after determining whether he has jurisdiction. Peters is serving nine years at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo.
Peters supporters have been trying to persuade the governor and state lawmakers to do something about her long prison sentence. State lawmakers have no authority over her sentence but Gov. Polis has the ability to issue a pardon or clemency.
In March, a Polis spokesman said Peters had not applied for clemency or a pardon and said the office would only consider clemency on its own merits “regardless of bullying and threats.” The office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s latest social media post.
Peters continues to argue she did nothing wrong when she helped an unauthorized person use someone else’s identity to access her office’s election equipment and attend a secure software update. And she remains a cause celeb for those on the right who believe election equipment makers conspired with Democrats to sway elections — claims that have never been upheld in any court.
“Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters, a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud. Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” said Trump, referring to her case as a "Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020."
Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, the MAGA firebrand who represents the state’s 4th Congressional District, said she sent a formal request to the FBI to look into the sentencing and treatment of Tina Peters.
“I am glad to see President Trump address this situation,” she wrote in a post on X. “I know FBI Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino will get the answers we deserve to hear!”
Boebert also compared Peters’ crimes to the inadvertent posting of voting machine passwords by the Democratic Secretary of State’s office, writing that the fact there were no legal charges in that situation is why “Coloradans believe the justice system is rigged.”
AG Weiser’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CPR News. But in March Weiser’s office said the DOJ intervention in the case has no legitimate basis and is a “grotesque attempt to weaponize the rule of law.”
“The United States cites not a single fact to support its baseless allegations that there are any reasonable concerns about Ms. Peters’ prosecution or sentence, or that the prosecution was politically motivated,” Weiser said.
State audits have found no evidence of election fraud in Colorado in the 2020 election and confirmed that the machine vote tally matched the markings on the paper ballots.
The only instance of voter fraud recorded in the 2024 election in Mesa County came from a pair of women who allegedly stole mail ballots and attempted to cast them in an effort to test the state’s election security procedures. One of the women charged, Vicki Stuart, pleaded guilty to two charges related to that investigation Monday morning.
To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org.
