President Donald Trump has threatened retaliation if Colorado doesn’t release his political ally from prison.
DENVER — The Trump administration is taking an official step to spring election conspiracy heroine Tina Peters from prison in Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Corrections confirms it received notice from the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Nov. 12, a concrete move toward a speculative strategy to free Peters from custody.
President Trump cannot pardon the former Mesa County clerk, who is serving a nine-year prison term on state charges for a scheme to sneak fellow election deniers into Colorado’s voting systems in a search for election rigging.
Far-right activists have repeatedly called for the Trump administration to use a novel maneuver to free Peters by first taking her into federal custody, perhaps by claiming she is a witness in a federal investigation into the 2020 election.
Peters has echoed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
President Trump’s U.S. Pardon Attorney, Ed Martin, announced on MAGA strategist Steve Bannon’s show on Nov. 10 that the administration had put Colorado on notice that the Trump administration wants Peters moved to federal custody.
“We did it in a way that puts the right kind of pressure on them,” Martin said. “If the feds say we want something, you change your tune.”
Martin also serves as the director of the Weaponization Working Group for the Department of Justice.
The move marks a formal escalation in a months-long war of words between the Trump administration and elected Democrats in Colorado.
Some Republican leaders in Colorado have called for the Trump administration to withhold federal funding from the state until Peters is freed.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has been adamant that he will not release Peters due to pressure from the Trump administration.
“Justice is not for sale,” Polis told Next with Kyle Clark in September.
In May, Trump directed the Department of Justice “to take all necessary action to help secure the release.”
Trump called Peters a “hostage” and declared, “FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!”
The Department of Justice took the unusual step of getting involved in Peters’ appeal of her conviction in March.
Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Colorado governor in 2026, fired back in a court filing, calling the federal involvement “a naked, political attempt to threaten or intimidate either this Court or the attorneys that prosecuted this matter.”
Peters and her allies have become increasingly frustrated that she has not yet been freed by Trump.
“Get off your asses, and get me out!” Peters said in an October message from prison, marking one year of incarceration.
Peters was serving as Mesa County clerk and recorder when she helped sneak a computer hacker into the voting systems using credentials issued to an employee in the office. The scheme failed to uncover evidence of election rigging, but the data shared with fellow election conspiracy theorists endangered election security, according to election experts.
Peters was convicted by a Mesa County jury in October 2024 of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with Secretary of State requirements.
Peters was defiant at sentencing, verbally sparring with Judge Matthew Barrett and presenting a slideshow of evidence that was not admitted at trial.
“I’m convinced you’d do it all over again,” Barrett said at sentencing. “You are no hero. You are a charlatan.”
Peters’ allies have kept up a constant drumbeat of appeals to the Trump administration to free her by any means necessary.
Recent headlines on far-right websites claim Peters is “very sick” or “dying” in prison.
A Nov. 13 filing by her attorney said Peters has had a cough since the La Vista Women’s Correctional Facility turned on the heat for the season.
The filing repeated Peters’ longstanding request for a magnetic mattress, a pseudoscientific alternative therapy.