Tina Peters, the infamous ex-elections chief from Colorado, is making headlines again as she demands that a Donald Trump-issued pardon wipe clean her state convictions.
Peters, who was previously found guilty for engineering a controversial security breach at Mesa County’s election office, is now urging Colorado’s appeals court to throw out her sentence — all because the former president tried to step in.
In her latest legal gambit, Peters’ lawyers claim Trump’s December 5 pardon should make the court powerless to enforce her punishment, arguing she should walk free immediately. Never mind that tradition and constitutional law don’t grant presidents the power to erase state-level crimes — her attorneys cite examples as far back as George Washington’s 1795 pardons during the Whiskey Rebellion, hoping the court will make history by siding with them. The next round of courtroom drama is set for January 14, with the state’s legal team ordered to respond no later than January 8.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser hasn’t minced words about the maneuver: declaring Trump’s pardon a legal impossibility, he described it as a move that would shatter constitutional precedent and won’t survive judicial scrutiny. His team has otherwise stayed tight-lipped as the case unfolds.
Undeterred, Peters’ legal team has threatened to escalate the case to the US Supreme Court should the state appeals panel throw out their arguments. Lawyer John Case already pressed for Peters’ immediate release, supported by Trump’s pardon, but received a swift denial from the state, according to emails submitted in court.
Peters, who lost a separate federal court challenge for release earlier this month, continues to claim she was persecuted for championing baseless theories about election fraud. The judge who sentenced her in October 2024, Matthew Barrett, slammed her as a “charlatan” and a menace for fueling dangerous misinformation. Peters, sentenced to nine years, remains defiant — insisting her actions were a crusade against fraud, not a crime.
Stemming from a plot involving a man tied to MyPillow CEO and conspiracy figure Mike Lindell, Peters was convicted after permitting illicit access to the election system and then lying to cover it up. The saga continues, with Peters fighting to rewrite not just her record, but the boundaries of presidential clemency itself.
