February 07, 2025 10:51 AM UTC

A Few Words On The "Big Lie's" Last Prisoner

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• by: Colorado Pols

After President Donald Trump’s pardon of just about all of the rioters who took part in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on his behalf, there are only a small number of individuals who are still affected by state sentences for crimes that Trump can’t make go away–including the convictions in Georgia in the case brought by local prosecutors over Trump’s attempt to steal the election in that state, which includes formerly Colorado-based attorney Jenna Ellis and Trump’s crackpot sometime lawyer Sidney Powell. Ellis is currently under a three-year suspension of her Colorado law license in addition to her Georgia felony conviction.

To our knowledge, the only person who remains incarcerated over actions related to the failed attempt to prove the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump is former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was sentenced last year to a total of nine years in prison for a range of crimes committed to facilitate access to Dominion Voting Systems equipment in her charge by election conspiracy theorists. Peters’ trial and eventual conviction dragged on for years after she was originally charged, due to Peters’ employment of every conceivable delay tactic including firing her legal team just before the trial was set to begin.

Today, Peters in county jail is awaiting placement in the Colorado Department of Corrections. But her supporters, buoyed by Trump’s return to the White House and mass pardoning of violent January 6th offenders, continue to carry Peters’ torch despite Trump’s inability to pardon the state crimes Peters was convicted of:

The problem for Peters’ diehard supporters is that even though second-guessing the 2020 presidential election has experienced a degree of political rehabilitation since Trump won the office back last year, Peters’ misconduct in the failed attempt to provide evidence the 2020 election was stolen was extensive and totally incompatible with her duties as a public servant. The precedent of public officials helping crackpots evade security measures they are charged with enforcing instead of reporting concerns through appropriate channels is not something any responsible person should want–and that’s what a pardon of Tina Peters would establish.

We wish we could say the same about, you know, insurrection. But Peters’ sentence is about protecting the integrity of sworn public service. And like our state laid out in Trump v. Anderson, that still counts for something here.