MaddowBlog-Colorado rebuffs Trump effort to transfer Tina Peters to federal custody

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The president and his team are still trying to intervene in the case of a convicted former county clerk. It’s not going well.

Colorado rebuffs Trump effort to transfer Tina Peters to federal custody - MS NOW

apple.news/AJPRetmFTRAG...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T17:20:34.131Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/colorado-rebuffs-trump-effort-to-transfer-tina-peters-to-federal-custody

A few weeks ago, the White House’s efforts to help former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters reached a new level: Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted the Colorado Department of Corrections, seeking to transfer Peters from a state prison to federal custody.

Evidently, the request was not well received. The Associated Press reported:

Colorado doesn’t plan to transfer from state prison to federal custody a former county clerk who has become a hero to election conspiracy theorists following a request from the Trump administration, state officials said Wednesday. The Colorado Department of Corrections said it is not seeking a transfer of Tina Peters, who was convicted last year of orchestrating a scheme in Mesa County to breach voting machine data driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

“Transferring an individual is an action initiated by the Colorado Department of Corrections, not an outside entity,” department spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia told the AP.....

Despite the Republican’s apparent interest in her case, there’s effectively nothing he can do: This was a state official, charged with state crimes, by state prosecutors, in a state court, with a state jury, overseen by a state judge, which necessarily means neither the president nor his Justice Department can overturn Peters’ criminal conviction.

Trump apparently intends to keep trying anyway, though there’s no reason to believe he’ll succeed.

Tina Peters' attorney is backing the idea of President Trump using a military raid to free her from a prison in Colorado.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of Colorado's county clerks say Gov Polis (D) is betraying election workers with his silence on whether he'll free Peters.

— Kyle Clark (@kylec.bsky.social) 2025-11-26T01:51:54.860Z

For his part, Peters’ defense attorney recently told Steve Bannon that he’d like to see the president deploy U.S. military personnel to the Colorado prison where Peters is being held in order to free her. The lawyer did not appear to be kidding.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Trump rages at 'sleazebag' governor for refusing to free 'elderly' MAGA acolyte

trump really wants to get this criminal released

President Donald Trump raged at a governor whom he derided as a "sleazbag" on Wednesday for declining to free one of Trump's allies from prison.

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2025-12-04T10:40:04Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674368195

President Donald Trump raged at a governor whom he derided as a "sleazbag" on Wednesday for declining to free one of Trump's allies from prison.

Earlier this week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office directed state prison officials not to comply with a request Trump made for Colorado to relinquish custody of convicted felon Tina Peters. Peters, 70, is serving a nine-year sentence for her role in leaking passwords for Mesa County, Colorado's election system to right-wing actors in regards to Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump fumed at Polis in a new Truth Social post on Wednesday.

"The SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters, who was unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do, cheating on Elections, out of jail!" Trump wrote. "She was convicted for trying to stop Democrats from stealing Colorado Votes in the Election. She was preserving Election Records, which she was obligated to do under Federal Law."

[Cha]

2. Yeah, Keep Spewing Garbage outta

your asshole mouth and Sleeping during your stupid cabinet meetings, idiot.

Wonder why Gov Polis isn't speaking out yet?

TY

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Trump Grants Tina Peters a Legally Meaningless 'Pardon'

Peters broke state law and this pardon is meaningless.

Link to tweet

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-grants-tina-peters-a-legally-meaningless-pardon/

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that he has issued a “full pardon” to Tina Peters — the Colorado election denier serving a nine-year state sentence — even though presidents have no constitutional authority to pardon state-level crimes.

Although the “pardon” is legally unenforceable, the announcement immediately heightens concerns about Trump’s ongoing attempts to override state sovereignty and intervene in criminal cases involving political allies.....

But under the Constitution, presidential clemency powers extend only to federal offenses — not state convictions like Peters’ — rendering Trump’s proclamation legally meaningless.

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted last year in Colorado court for facilitating a breach of the state’s election equipment. Prosecutors said she allowed unauthorized individuals to access sensitive voting-machine software during a 2021 update, helped copy and circulate confidential election data and then misled investigators as the scheme unraveled. The data later appeared in fringe circles promoting Trump’s “Big Lie.”

Because Peters was prosecuted under Colorado law, only Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) has the authority to grant clemency.

“Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers for state crimes in a state Court,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said in a statement following Trump’s declaration. “Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”