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Bending the Knee to Trump by Robert Kuttner
Last week, Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, commuted the sentence of Tina Peters, the Mesa County election clerk currently serving a nine-year sentence for her role in a plot to seize voting machines in an attempt to show voting fraud against President Trump in the 2020 election.
But the only attempted voting fraud was by Peters herself. In sentencing Peters, District Judge Matthew Barrett told her, “I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen.”
After Peters’s sentencing, Trump became obsessed with getting a pardon for her. Since this was a sentence for a crime under state law, he could not pardon Peters himself, though he did issue a symbolic pardon.
To put pressure on Polis, Trump cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for Colorado. This included rejecting disaster relief for counties damaged by floods and fire, and acting to shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. Trump vetoed an urgently needed water pipeline for several counties in rural Colorado, and also froze child care and food assistance for low-income families, all the while lobbying Polis to free Peters.
In announcing the commutation, Polis insisted that he was not trying to appease Trump. In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that she deserved to spend time in prison. “However, this is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.”
But the only attempted voting fraud was by Peters herself. In sentencing Peters, District Judge Matthew Barrett told her, “I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen.”
After Peters’s sentencing, Trump became obsessed with getting a pardon for her. Since this was a sentence for a crime under state law, he could not pardon Peters himself, though he did issue a symbolic pardon.
To put pressure on Polis, Trump cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for Colorado. This included rejecting disaster relief for counties damaged by floods and fire, and acting to shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. Trump vetoed an urgently needed water pipeline for several counties in rural Colorado, and also froze child care and food assistance for low-income families, all the while lobbying Polis to free Peters.
In announcing the commutation, Polis insisted that he was not trying to appease Trump. In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that she deserved to spend time in prison. “However, this is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.”
https://prospect.org/2026/05/19/bending-knee-to-trump-tina-peters-jared-polis-colorado-2020-election/]
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It has become a joke.
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