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RandySF

(81,165 posts) Mon Dec 8, 2025, 07:10 PM Dec 8

Former Colorado clerk will remain in state prison after a federal judge rejects her bid for freedom

DENVER (AP) — A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected a bid by a former Colorado county clerk to be released from prison while she appeals her state conviction for orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters filed a federal lawsuit asking that she be released on bond while her appeal is considered. Attorneys for the state had argued the case should be thrown out partly because of a legal doctrine that prevents federal courts from getting involved in pending state criminal cases.

Federal magistrate judge Scott Varholak ruled Monday that Peters didn’t make a case that he should get involved in overturning her state sentence.

Peters argued that the magistrate judge should free her because she said the state judge who sentenced her to nine years behind bars violated her First Amendment rights. Peters claimed he punished her for making allegations about election fraud, but prosecutors argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed judges to consider people’s speech during sentencings if they deem it relevant.

https://apnews.com/article/colorado-clerk-tina-peters-2020-election-ca614ef134fbfb0d5d1e64c1aaf74330

3 replies

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Former Colorado clerk will remain in state prison after a federal judge rejects her bid for freedom (Original Post) RandySF Dec 8 OP

looks like Tina petered out again. sheshe2 Dec 8 #1

REC, 1000,000,000,000,000,000 bluestarone Dec 8 #2

MaddowBlog-Trump's pardon for Colorado's Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw LetMyPeopleVote Dec 12 #3

sheshe2

(95,901 posts)

1. looks like Tina petered out again.

Reply to RandySF (Original post)

Mon Dec 8, 2025, 07:15 PM

Dec 8

So sad.,

bluestarone

(21,180 posts)

2. REC, 1000,000,000,000,000,000

Reply to RandySF (Original post)

Mon Dec 8, 2025, 07:15 PM

Dec 8

LetMyPeopleVote

(174,963 posts)

3. MaddowBlog-Trump's pardon for Colorado's Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw

Reply to RandySF (Original post)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 04:13 PM

Dec 12

Presidents can’t pardon individuals convicted of state crimes. Whether Trump understands that isn’t entirely clear.

Trumpâ€™s pardon for Coloradoâ€™s Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw: she was convicted under state law. Trump can't pardon state crimes.

How stupid is Donny Trump? www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Cheeky Tart (@svenable.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T16:32:51.170Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-pardon-tina-peters-colorado

Over the course of the past year, Donald Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to help Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who’s currently in prison for election crimes. The one step the president had not taken was to issue a pardon, since that wouldn’t make any sense.

Late Thursday, he did it anyway. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

.....In August, Trump threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” unless the state agreed to release Peters, who he claimed had been “tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.” More recently, Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted the Colorado Department of Corrections, seeking to transfer Peters from a state prison to federal custody, but that didn’t work, either.

Left with no other options, the president announced a pardon for Peters.

Except that won’t work, either. Peters faced state prosecution over state crimes. She was tried and convicted in state court. She was sentenced by a state judge and sent to a state prison.

A federal pardon might make Trump feel better, but it’s also utterly irrelevant. As Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser explained in a written statement, “One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government. The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”

The question, however, is whether Trump knows this.

It’s possible that the president, desperate to assist an ally he’s powerless to help, issued the pardon as a symbolic gesture, grudgingly aware of the fact that it will change nothing. What’s unclear, however, is whether Trump intended this to have some force of law as Peters’ attorney continues to work to get his client out of prison. Watch this space.

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