August 21, 2025 08:09 AM UTC

Trump Threatens Colorado With "Harsh Measures" If Tina Peters Isn't Released

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

In a Truth Social post today, which we’re supposed to refer to simply as a “Truth” but for self-evident reasons we decline, President Donald Trump issued the most direct threat yet against the state of Colorado over the incarceration of convicted felon former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. Peters, as readers know, was sentenced to nine years in prison last October for orchestrating a breach of security via identity theft to allow unauthorized persons access to Dominion Voting Systems equipment, in a failed attempt to generate evidence supporting Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was decided unfairly. Since retaking the White House and pardoning the January 6th insurrectionists, Peters’ case has stood out as one of the only residual consequences of Trump’s failed coup attempt that he doesn’t have the power to make go away.

This has led to Trump and his pet Justice Department seeking to meddle in any way they can in Peters’ appeal process. While the Justice Department shadowed Peters’ appeal case with a statement of interest, Trump took to social media calling Peters a “patriot,” baselessly claiming that her actions had somehow proven the 2020 election was stolen, and demanding Peters’ release. This happened contemporaneously with an expansive request for elections data from the Justice Department that exceeded the state’s own retention policies.

This morning, as the Washington Post reports, Trump put teeth into his so-called “Truths.” But nobody’s sure what exactly that means:

It is unclear what action Trump could take. Because Peters was convicted in a state court, he has no clemency power in her case.

In May, Trump said he had ordered the federal Justice Department “to take all necessary action to help secure the release” of Peters…

Peters is one of the few officials to face consequences for using their positions in local elections offices to try to promote false claims that took root after Trump’s defeat.

Election experts have cited the breach in Mesa County as a consequence of falsehoods spread about voting systems. Peters has been embraced and championed by many of those who continue to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — including, now, the president himself.

While there isn’t clarity on what Trump can legally do to “persuade” Gov. Jared Polis to grant some kind of clemency to Peters, the worry of course is that Trump has no real compunctions about going outside the law to get what he wants. The potential ways that the federal government could retaliate against a state unconstrained by ethical considerations or even the law are too numerous to list here, and we would hesitate to do so in any case so as not to give Trump any ideas.

All we can say is that the harder Trump pushes on Colorado to relieve his conscience of Tina Peters’ incarceration, the more important it is for Colorado to not give in to the pressure. Peters’ case was always about more than the felony crimes she committed, and for which she richly earned her prison sentence. The case served as a proxy court battle over the larger “Big Lie” promoted by Trump to this day that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. No evidence to support Trump’s false claims has ever emerged in all the years since, and despite Trump’s claim today, Peters’ crimes did not uncover any evidence to support Trump’s refusal to admit defeat.

Donald Trump’s pathological inability to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election has become one of the most destructive events in the history of American democracy, leading to groundless distrust in American elections by his supporters, and real fears that Republicans may never again accept the results of elections they do not win. Trump is determined to prosecute this battle for the historical narrative, despite the fact that outside his bubble of supporters this false version of events has been thoroughly discredited.

In the end, Trump’s threats serve only one purpose: to remind the country of the real reason Tina Peters is in prison.

Donald Trump. Is the reason. Tina Peters. Is in prison.