{"id":672966,"date":"2026-05-16T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672966\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:26:16","slug":"election-denier-tina-peters-will-get-clemency-after-admitting-she-made-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672966\/","title":{"rendered":"Election denier Tina Peters will get clemency after admitting she \u2018made a mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Tina Peters<\/a>, the Republican former election clerk imprisoned for crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, will receive clemency from Colorado\u2019s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and soon be released from custody, Polis exclusively told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The decision followed a statement in Peters\u2019 clemency application, obtained by CNN from Polis\u2019 office, in which Peters acknowledged for the first time since her 2024 conviction<\/a> that she \u201cmade a mistake\u201d and \u201cmisled\u201d Colorado election officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis said in an interview Friday that he was cutting Peters\u2019 prison sentence in half, reducing it to 4.5 years. Based on her time already served \u200bsince 2024 and Colorado\u2019s early release rules, she\u2019ll be released on parole on June 1, Polis said in a letter to Peters obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n A jury in conservative-leaning Mesa County<\/a> convicted Peters in 2024 of conspiring<\/a> with fellow election deniers to breach her county\u2019s election systems in hopes of proving President Donald Trump\u2019s baseless 2020 voter-fraud claims.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has waged a long pressure campaign<\/a> against Colorado over Peters\u2019 incarceration.\ufeff She is the last Trump ally still in prison for 2020 election-related crimes.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI made a mistake four years ago,\u201d Peters said in the statement released Friday. \u201cI 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis said he agrees with a recent appeals court ruling<\/a> which found that the trial judge improperly punished Peters for her protected speech about the 2020 election, telling CNN he\u2019d like others to come to the same conclusion as the court. But he knows, especially among Democrats in his state and beyond, that\u2019s going to be tough.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI hope that Democrats don\u2019t sacrifice our deeply held belief in free speech because of political expediency or disregard for what people are saying,\u201d Polis said. \u201cThere should be no consideration of what we say, how unpopular it is, how inaccurate it is in sentencing or in criminal proceedings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis said he also heard from Trump privately in addition to the president\u2019s public posts demanding Peters, 70, be released. He said that the president often gets facts wrong about Peters, her crime and his ability to pardon her for state-level offenses.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe gets her age wrong. He gets what she did wrong. My focus was doing what\u2019s right and then looking at the merits of the case,\u201d Polis said.\n <\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

\n He says Peters committed a crime, and he was personally disgusted with what Peters said about the 2020 election, \u201cbut we have to make sure our justice system is blind and fair.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement released by Peters\u2019 attorneys Friday night, she thanked the governor and said she has \u201clearned and grown during my time in prison\u201d and is now \u201csorry\u201d for the \u201cmistakes\u201d she made in 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI condemn any and all bullying, threats and acts of violence against voters, county clerks, election workers, and other public officials, and concerned citizens like myself,\u201d Peters said. \u201cUpon release, I plan to do my best through legal means to support election integrity and, based on my own personal experiences, to elevate the cause of prison reform.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She added, \u201cI am grateful for a second chance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Witnesses testified at Peters\u2019 trial that in 2021, she gave people affiliated with pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell<\/a> unauthorized access to the election offices in Mesa County, where she was the clerk. Witnesses said they made copies of sensitive election data so they could audit the 2020 results.\n <\/p>\n

\n Until the statement released Friday, Peters had denied wrongdoing and maintained for years that she was trying to preserve election records, as required by federal law.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last month, a state appeals court upheld Peters\u2019 criminal convictions.<\/a> However, it ordered the trial judge to re-sentence her, finding that he improperly based part of the punishment on Peters\u2019 protected speech about elections, violating her First Amendment rights.\n <\/p>\n

\n A date for a new sentencing hearing hadn\u2019t been set yet. Peters was eligible for parole in 2028. CNN has reported that, even without clemency, Colorado law could have made Peters eligible to move into a halfway house or a similar arrangement as soon as this November with good behavior.\n <\/p>\n

\n Through her allies, Peters had continued promoting<\/a> debunked conspiracies about election-rigging from prison.\n <\/p>\n

\n Her official website still says she is the victim of \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d prosecutions designed to \u201csilence\u201d her for \u201cexposing what she believed were critical flaws in the election system.\u201d Her social media feed includes unfounded claims from supposed informants who claimed American voting machines can flip votes using technology from Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n

\n Her account reshared a post<\/a> Tuesday from a radio host who urged Trump to \u201cINVADE COLORADO if you have to\u201d and \u201cdo whatever needs to be done\u201d to free Peters from prison.\n <\/p>\n

\n The governor has seen the posts and what Peters has continued to say. That\u2019s not a reason to keep her behind bars, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI hope that she\u2019s no longer a martyr, that she is just another person who believes in conspiracies on the street after this,\u201d Polis said. \u201cI hope she doesn\u2019t believe in conspiracies, but I\u2019m not holding my breath.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, Peters\u2019 impending release is a victory for Trump and the right-wing election denier movement, which hails her as a hero who was unjustly prosecuted.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a lawsuit against the Trump administration, Colorado officials accused the administration of a \u201crevenge campaign\u201d that included closing<\/a> a Colorado-based climate lab, denying<\/a> federal disaster assistance requests from the state, yanking federal transportation funds and threatening to withhold federal food assistance for low-income families.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump also vetoed<\/a> a bill for a Colorado water project and moved<\/a> US Space Command from Colorado Springs to Alabama. And in February, Trump tried to exclude<\/a> Polis and another Democratic governor from what is traditionally a bipartisan gathering of governors at the White House.\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House says these decisions were well-founded and legally supported.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump issued<\/a> a symbolic federal pardon for Peters in December, but Polis is the only person who could let Peters out of prison because she was convicted of state charges.\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis pointed out that the commutation decision is not a pardon because he believes she broke the law and wants her to live with that felony on her record.\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis\u2019 term ends in January, and he has bucked his party on some key issues in recent years. The Democratic Party has been in near-universal condemnation of the effort to argue Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss was fraudulent.\n <\/p>\n

\n Polis sloughed off talk of how the decision might affect a 2028 presidential run that some have speculated he might make.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis has nothing to do with that,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we need to get past the divisive rhetoric of today and understand that just because you\u2019re on the unpopular side of an argument \u2013 if you\u2019re a person who believes in conservative things in a liberal state or liberal things in conservative state or conspiracy things in any state or that the earth is flat \u2013 you have that free speech.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n After news of the commutation broke, Trump posted<\/a> \u201cFREE TINA!\u201d on his social website, Truth Social. The White House did not comment further on the matter. But there was also swift and bipartisan pushback from Colorado officials who condemned Polis\u2019 move to set Peters free early.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold \u2013 the Democratic election official who Peters admitted in her statement to Polis that she \u201cmisled\u201d in 2021 \u2013 said in a statement that Polis\u2019 commutation was an \u201caffront to democracy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was more than just misleading my office,\u201d Griswold said at a press conference Friday, referring to Peters\u2019 statement to the governor. \u201cI do not think that Peters is remorseful. If she was, she would stop using that incident to push out conspiracies and lies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, a Republican who first charged Peters, said Polis\u2019 explanations were \u201cmisguided and misunderstood,\u201d and that Peters received \u201cspecial treatment that ordinary defendants would never receive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is a sad day for Mesa County citizens, who endured the disruption, expense, and damage caused by Ms. Peters\u2019 conduct, only to watch their Governor arrogantly disregard the voices of those closest to the case, numerous elected leaders, and the rule of law itself,\u201d Rubinstein said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is running to succeed Polis as governor in this year\u2019s election, said the commutation was \u201cmind-boggling and wrong as a matter of basic justice.\u201d Weiser, who spent the last two years defending Peters\u2019 convictions in court, also said the original nine-year punishment was \u201ca reasonable sentence based on her criminal conduct.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Matt Crane, a former Republican election official who now runs the Colorado County Clerks Association, said members of his group privately lobbied Polis against clemency, and they are now \u201cfurious, disgusted and deeply disappointed.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Releasing Peters early sends a \u201creckless and dangerous message\u201d to the public and election officials, said Crane, who blasted Polis for \u201cbending to the knee\u201d to \u201cconspiracy movements that are actively undermining our institutions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is now Governor Polis\u2019 legacy,\u201d Crane said.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tina Peters, the Republican former election clerk imprisoned for crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-672966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}