{"id":374,"date":"2026-05-15T22:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=374"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:35:17","slug":"2020-election-denier-tina-peters-granted-clemency-by-democratic-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"2020 election denier Tina Peters granted clemency by Democratic governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis had been under pressure from Trump to pardon Peters, a former county clerk who helped secretly copy voting machines\u2019 hard drives.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more How hard is Aronimink for the PGA Championship? That depends on the pins<\/a><\/p>\n

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A jury convicted Tina Peters of seven charges, including four felonies, in 2024. She was sentenced to nine years in prison. (David Zalubowski\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Colorado\u2019s Democratic governor granted clemency Friday to a former county clerk convicted on charges related to a scheme to bolster President Donald Trump\u2019s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis (D) has faced pressure and attacks from President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating the sentence given to former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters. Election officials from both parties condemned Polis for Friday\u2019s action, saying he <\/b>gave special treatment to someone who has undermined confidence in elections.<\/p>\n

Polis\u2019s clemency order will grant Peters parole on June 1, potentially shaving years off her prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Polis said he carefully considered his decision to grant clemency to Peters and others convicted in unrelated cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis power has the ability to change lives \u2014 help grant a second chance for someone who has made grave mistakes \u2014 and it comes with great consideration, and sometimes even controversy,\u201d the governor said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors filed 10 charges against Peters in 2022, accusing her of helping to secretly copy Dominion Voting Systems\u2019 hard drives by slipping a purported computer expert into secure areas of her office using someone else\u2019s security badge. Within months, data from her office appeared online and was featured at a symposium held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell<\/a>, who has spent years leveling false claims about elections and seeks to end the use of voting machines.<\/p>

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A jury convicted Peters of seven charges, including four felonies, in 2024, and District Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced<\/a> her to nine years in prison.<\/p>\n

Peters appealed. An appeals court in April upheld her conviction but ordered her to be resentenced<\/a> after determining that Barrett had based part of the sentence on her public comments rather than her actions. Polis praised the decision at the time, saying he thought Barrett had given a 70-year-old nonviolent offender too much time behind bars.<\/p>\n

Barrett has not yet resentenced Peters, but Polis\u2019s action will ensure that she gets out of prison soon.<\/p>\n

Trump and his allies have long pushed to get Peters out of prison.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department took the unusual step of intervening in court on behalf of Peters as she sought release. Trump issued her a pardon<\/a> in December, but the state appeals court determined that it had no practical effect because she was convicted on state charges, not federal charges.<\/p>\n

Trump long pressed Polis to free Peters and earlier called him a \u201csleazebag\u201d for not helping her. <\/b>The president and his administration have taken several actions targeting the state, and many <\/b>Colorado officials have interpreted them as retribution for Peters remaining behind bars.<\/p>\n

Trump vetoed<\/a> a bipartisan drinking-water project in the state. He announced he was moving U.S. Space Command<\/a> from Colorado to Alabama. The administration said it was breaking up a massive atmospheric research center<\/a> in the state. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blocked<\/a> a wolf reintroduction plan, dealing a blow to a program important to Polis and his husband, an animal rights advocate.<\/p>

Read more Ruud beats Darderi to reach Italian Open final. Sinner-Medvedev suspended by rain<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis had been under pressure from Trump to pardon Peters, a former county clerk who helped secretly copy voting machines\u2019 hard drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\n2020 election denier Tina Peters granted clemency by Democratic governor - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2020 election denier Tina Peters granted clemency by Democratic governor - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Colorado Gov. 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