Federal judge declines to release Tina Peters, the only Trump ally in prison for 2020 election-related crimes

[MarineCombatEngineer]

A federal judge on Monday refused to release from prison former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the only ally of President Donald Trump currently behind bars for crimes related to the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Last year, a state jury convicted Peters, the former Republican clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, of participating in a criminal scheme with fellow election deniers to breach her county’s secure voting systems, in hopes of proving Trump’s false claims of massive fraud.

Trump has championed the case of Peters, 70, who is now one year into a nine-year prison sentence, calling her an “innocent political prisoner.” CNN recently reported that Trump is being strongly encouraged to more aggressively intervene in the matter, to try to get her out of prison.

Peters filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year, known as a habeas petition, arguing that she should be released because of constitutional concerns from her trial, specifically that her free speech rights were violated. But US Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak rejected Peters’ longshot bid to be released.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/federal-judge-declines-to-release-tina-peters-the-only-trump-ally-in-prison-for-2020-election-related-crimes/ar-AA1RYiSA?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Good, keep her ass in prison where she belongs.
Tina Peters, all during her trial and at sentencing, was defiant and unapologetic and the judge, a Republican judge at that, called her a charlatan and said she would do it all over again if given the chance.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. A federal magistrate judge has rejected Tina Peters' habeas petition challenging her incarceration

Link to tweet

[lark]

2. She earned her sentence and deserves every day of her sentence! nt

[Hotler]

3. Good. nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-Trump's pardon for Colorado's Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw

Last edited Sat Dec 13, 2025, 11:13 AM - Edit history (1)

Presidents can’t pardon individuals convicted of state crimes. Whether Trump understands that isn’t entirely clear.

Trump’s pardon for Colorado’s Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw: she was convicted under state law. Trump can't pardon state crimes.

How stupid is Donny Trump? www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Cheeky Tart (@svenable.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T16:32:51.170Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-pardon-tina-peters-colorado

Over the course of the past year, Donald Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to help Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who’s currently in prison for election crimes. The one step the president had not taken was to issue a pardon, since that wouldn’t make any sense.

Late Thursday, he did it anyway. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

.....In August, Trump threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” unless the state agreed to release Peters, who he claimed had been “tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.” More recently, Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted the Colorado Department of Corrections, seeking to transfer Peters from a state prison to federal custody, but that didn’t work, either.

Left with no other options, the president announced a pardon for Peters.

Except that won’t work, either. Peters faced state prosecution over state crimes. She was tried and convicted in state court. She was sentenced by a state judge and sent to a state prison.

A federal pardon might make Trump feel better, but it’s also utterly irrelevant. As Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser explained in a written statement, “One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government. The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”

The question, however, is whether Trump knows this.

It’s possible that the president, desperate to assist an ally he’s powerless to help, issued the pardon as a symbolic gesture, grudgingly aware of the fact that it will change nothing. What’s unclear, however, is whether Trump intended this to have some force of law as Peters’ attorney continues to work to get his client out of prison. Watch this space.