January 14, 2026 10:58 AM UTC

How Donald Trump Became Tina Peters' Worst Enemy

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• by: Colorado Pols

Over the last week, supporters of convicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters–individuals who by nature and calling are not sticklers for factuality–seized on a headline from CBS4 Denver’s Republican go-to political reporter Shaun Boyd stating that Gov. Jared Polis is “considering” some form of clemency for Peters. This supposed change of heart was quickly debunked by 9NEWS Kyle Clark, who confirmed that the governor’s admittedly somewhat ambiguous position on Peters hasn’t changed:

This week, CBS News’ national news anchor Tony Dokoupil took a break from brown-nosing Marco Rubio to interview Gov. Polis for the CBS Evening News, which you might not know about since CBS News’ ratings have plunged since the “Tiffany Network’s” acquisition by the billionaire Ellison family and the installation of highly controversial news director Bari Weiss. But in this interview, Gov. Polis explains again how Peters is not being treated any differently than other offenders, despite the immense pressure and growing list of punitive measures taken by the Trump administration to effect Peters’ release:

“You can’t give the president the headspace on this,” Polis told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil. “You look at every case on clemency on the merits. You have somebody who is nonviolent, a first-time offender, elderly. On the other hand, does she take full accountability for her crime? We don’t look at this in isolation.” [Pols emphasis]

Peters insisted, even during her sentencing, that she did nothing wrong and was trying to prevent and discover voter fraud. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, contrary to Mr. Trump’s repeated claims.

“I have dozens of these requests that we look at regularly, and I want to make sure that we don’t look at this one in any different way,” Polis said, but noted he has not made a decision.

Polis said he will only make his decision based on the facts of the case, “and there’s some that work in her favor, some that work against her.”

The factors that legitimately work in Peters’ favor are her age, lack of prior convictions, and the nonviolent nature of her offenses. But Peters’ lack of any remorse for her crimes, which included official misconduct and conspiracy to commit identity theft, makes it impossible to show her leniency without undermining the integrity of the criminal justice system. It would be like pardoning a bank robber who promises to keep robbing banks the moment he’s set free. In Peters’ case, she has been egged on from the beginning to carry out her scheme, and then to defend her actions to the bitter end, by a whole culture of election conspiracy theorists that has grown up around Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

The other big problem standing in the way of any decision to commute Peters’ sentence is the “harsh measures” that Trump threatened the state with if Peters was not released–threats that Trump has made good on with an array of adverse decisions, funding cuts, and facility closures over the last year since retaking office. Legal action is underway right now against the administration seeking to roll back these plain acts of unconstitutional political punishment, recently updated to specifically cite Peters and Trump’s threats to tie all of these actions together with a common motive. We take Gov. Polis at his word when he says that outside pressure will not affect his decision, but that also means Trump’s reprisals against our state must not even be afforded the appearance of effectiveness.

In short, Trump’s bullying to free Tina Peters is having the opposite effect. If this was really about getting Peters out of jail, Trump would step back from his extortion campaign, and Tina Peters would express remorse for what everyone except a few discredited crackpots agrees were in fact serious crimes. That’s the opinion of the Republican DA who prosecuted Peters, and Republican county clerks across the state who wanted nothing to do with her baseless conspiracy theories. If Peters had shown remorse at trial, she almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten nine years to begin with.

Mercy, at the end of the day, is a two-way street. Tina Peters put herself in jail, and Trump’s heavy hand is helping keep her there.