January 20, 2026 10:56 AM UTC

New Video Exposes Campaign Of Lies About Tina Peters' Life In Prison

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Sam Klomhaus reports, the alarm went out on social media this weekend that incarcerated ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, serving a nine-year sentence for orchestrating an identity theft scheme to allow election conspiracy theorists to steal data from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in a failed attempt to prove Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential elections, had been “assaulted” in the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo:

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has claimed to have been assaulted at the La Vista correctional facility in Pueblo, where she is serving a nine year sentence.

A website associated with Peters said in a press release that Peters was inside a maintenance closet Sunday night when she was accosted by another inmate, who “began striking her in anger.”

The release stated Peters defended herself against the inmate, and has been charged with felony assault. The release also stated that as far as Peters knows the other inmate has not been charged.

As Peters’ devoted network of followers fired up the outrage over this latest report of hard times for the last person still in prison over Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 presidential election, state Rep. Ken “Skin” DeGraaf of Colorado Springs upped the ante with some positively wild allegations of his own:

We know the bar is high these days, but it’s nonetheless quite shocking to see an elected state official accuse “the State,” who we assume to mean Gov. Jared Polis and we’re pretty sure that’s what DeGraaf wants us to assume, of sending “a goon” to assault Tina Peters during the current impasse between the state and federal governments over Peters’ incarceration. We are talking about one of the Colorado House GOP minority’s most rhetorically unhinged back-benchers, but that’s still a wildly irresponsible allegation to make without hard evidence. For those who have followed this story, there’s an early hint that DeGraaf is spreading misinformation in his claim that Peters was sent to “shackled solitary” after the incident, since it’s been well-documented after similar prior allegations that La Vista Correctional Facility does not have solitary confinement cells.

And then the video came out.

The claims made in this post do not appear to be accurate.

Here is video of an incident in prison with Tina Peters.

DOC says no one was hurt. Peters is not solitary as the facility doesn’t have solitary. She is in a different housing area now. https://t.co/WuWiysKYIm pic.twitter.com/H6RZkRubKj

— Marshall Zelinger (@Marshall9News) January 20, 2026

The video of the altercation obtained by 9NEWS shows a reality that is very different from these second-hand descriptions, and raises serious questions about not just the depiction of this incident, but longstanding allegations about the conditions in prison Peters lives with, as well Peters’ own supposed poor health–both regularly cited by her supporters pushing for Gov. Polis to commute Peters’ sentence. In the video above, you can see another woman walking toward Peters, who initially isn’t in view. The first sight of Peters comes as she charges into view with Peters’ hands on the upper body of the other woman, pushing her around the room before forcefully pushing the woman away. Both parties walked away uninjured. While we can’t see clearly who initiated the contact, Peters appears to have had the upper hand in this very minor altercation.

Gov. Polis has said that he is evaluating Peters’ request for clemency the same way as he would with any convict, taking into account many factors that include the guilty party’s remorse, and also their age and health–but not the political pressure and retaliatory actions from Trump that loom over the request. Peters defiantly clinging to the baseless conspiracy theories that motivated her crimes goes well beyond a simple lack of remorse. That would leave Peters’ fitness at her age and condition to serve out her sentence as the principal consideration.

Needless to say, the contrast between the allegations made by Peters’ supporters and the truth as shown in this video is a big problem. There’s certainly nothing to suggest this was some kind of planned attack against Peters orchestrated by “the State” (or anyone else, for that matter). But it’s also clear that Peters is not some declining septuagenarian living in daily danger of abuse at the hands of the prison population. Peters appears to be quite capable of not only taking care of herself, but giving as good as she gets in terms of jailhouse rough and tumble.

Once Gov. Polis is done rightly being offended by Rep. DeGraaf’s ridiculous accusation that this was a deliberate act by “the State” Polis leads, he should evaluate the truth as revealed in this incident against the campaign of lies about Peters’ prison conditions and health feeding the demands for him to commute Peters’ sentence. Giving into the demands from Trump that Peters be freed to appease his conscience would be institutionally wrong, but also morally unnecessary.

From everything we can see, Tina Peters is exactly where she belongs.