Friends in high places Trump and DOJ try to spring former county clerk Tina Peters from prison Trump directs DOJ to help secure release of Peters from Colorado prison. Jon Brodkin – May 6, 2025 4:14 pm | 73 Tina Peters on June 28, 2022, in Sedalia, Colorado. Credit: Getty Images | Marc Piscotty Tina Peters on June 28, 2022, in Sedalia, Colorado. Credit: Getty Images | Marc Piscotty Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more President Donald Trump is demanding the release of Tina Peters, a former election official who parroted Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories and is serving nine years in prison for compromising the security of election equipment. In a post on Truth Social last night, Trump wrote that "Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters, a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud. Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment." Trump said he is "directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this 'hostage' being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons." The former Mesa County clerk was indicted in March 2022 on charges related to the leak of voting-system BIOS passwords and other confidential information. Peters was convicted in August 2024 and later sentenced in a Colorado state court. "Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious," 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters at her October 2024 sentencing. "I am convinced you would do it all over again. You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen." DOJ reviews case for “abuse” of process After Peters' August 2024 conviction, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said that "Tina Peters willfully compromised her own election equipment trying to prove Trump's big lie." Peters appealed her conviction in a Colorado appeals court and separately sought relief in US District Court for the District of Colorado. She asked the federal court to order her release on bond while the state court system handles her appeal and said her health has deteriorated while being incarcerated. Trump's Justice Department submitted a filing on Peters' behalf in March, saying the US has concerns about "the exceptionally lengthy sentence imposed relative to the conduct at issue, the First Amendment implications of the trial court's October 2024 assertions relating to Ms. Peters, and whether Colorado's denial of bail pending appeal was arbitrary or unreasonable under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." The DOJ urged the federal court to give "prompt and careful consideration" to Peters' petition and said the Peters case is being examined as part of a broader review of "abuses of the criminal justice process." The DOJ said its "review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado's prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was 'oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.'" State AG: Peters “believed she was above the law” Weiser responded in a March 11 filing that the Trump administration's intervention "appears to be a naked, political attempt to threaten or intimidate either this Court or the attorneys that prosecuted this matter," and that the US "cites not a single fact to support its baseless allegations that there are any reasonable concerns about Ms. Peters' prosecution or sentence, or that the prosecution was politically motivated in any way." The Weiser filing continued: While serving as the Clerk and Recorder of Mesa County, Ms. Peters deceived county employees to obtain credentials that allowed an unauthorized person to access Mesa County's voting system after the 2020 election. A Mesa County jury convicted Ms. Peters of three counts of attempt to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and one count each of: first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with requirements of the Secretary of State. Ms. Peters sought an appeal bond, which the trial court denied because Ms. Peters demonstrated repeatedly that she believed she was above the law—from deceiving county employees, to violating the State's rules governing its election systems, to appearing (with a camera crew) at a voting site in violation of a protection order issued by the trial court. At no point during the proceedings did Ms. Peters exhibit any indication that she understood the gravity of her criminal conduct. Instead, even after her conviction, she reaffirmed her position that her conduct was justified by her conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Weiser's brief said he is unaware of the US ever previously "filing a statement in a habeas application challenging the State of Colorado's criminal proceedings." Peters’ petition has a problem US Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak appears ready to dismiss some of Peters' claims because she hasn't exhausted potential remedies in state courts. Varholak yesterday wrote that Peters hasn't exhausted appeals for her claim "that she was denied due process under the Fourteenth Amendment" and her claim that "she was denied the right to immunity under the Supremacy Cause and Privileges and Immunities Clause." By contrast, Varholak found that Peters has exhausted her claim that the denial of bond pending appeal violated her First Amendment right to free speech. This makes her complaint in federal court a "mixed petition" that contains both unexhausted and exhausted claims. A mixed petition would have to be dismissed in its entirety, but Varholak said Peters can continue in federal court by dropping the unexhausted claims and going forward with the exhausted one. Doing so "likely will bar her from seeking review of the unexhausted claims in a second or successive application," he noted. Peters can alternatively "request a stay of this action while she attempts to exhaust the unexhausted claims in state court." Weiser's office said in a statement to Colorado Public Radio today that he will continue to fight the Trump administration. "Tina Peters is in prison because of her own actions," Weiser's statement said. "A grand jury indicted her and a trial jury found her guilty of breaking Colorado's criminal laws. No one is above the law. The Colorado Attorney General's Office will continue to defend this criminal conviction in post-conviction proceedings and on appeal. We are firm in pursuing justice for the people of the state of Colorado, protecting free and fair elections, and standing up for the rule of law." Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 73 Comments