Gov. Jared Polis told a Colorado TV station that the prison sentence levied against former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was “harsh” and suggested he was “looking at” revisiting it, weeks after several elected officials urged him not to release the prominent ally of President Donald Trump.
“She got a sentence that was harsh. It was a nine-year sentence,” Polis told CBS Colorado in an interview aired Thursday night. “So we always look at people’s sentences. And when you have people that are elderly, and we’re looking at this across a number of many people — people in their 70s or 80s in our system — how much of a threat to society are they, and how do we balance that in a way that makes sure they can spend their last year few years at home?”
Trump has already tried to pardon Peters, who was convicted of state crimes that aren’t covered by a president’s pardon powers. Polis’ comments to the CBS affiliate came after he dismissed Trump’s pardon effort last month and said it was “a matter for the courts to decide.”
The governor’s office had not responded to The Denver Post’s request for more clarity about Polis’ comments by late Friday morning.
Peters, 70, remains incarcerated in a state prison in Pueblo. She was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to nine years in prison and jail for crimes related to unauthorized access to state voting machines, with the trial judge noting her lack of remorse. She had been accused of using someone else’s security badge to allow a man, who was affiliated with fellow election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, to access Mesa County’s election system.
Since Trump returned to office, he has repeatedly called for her release and threatened “harsh measures” if she remained incarcerated.
“Tina Peters has done more to undermine confidence in our elections than any other Coloradan, and is rightly facing accountability for the harm she has caused to election workers, our democracy, and state,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Friday in a statement to The Post responding to Polis’ new comments. “I am deeply concerned at any indication of caving to this unhinged President.”
Dan Rubinstein, the Mesa County district attorney who prosecuted Peters, told The Post on Friday that he’d met with Polis, a Democrat, and that the governor hadn’t decided whether to release her. Rubinstein is a Republican.
“It is my understanding that he has made no decisions and is intending to meet with many others before making a final decision,” he said.
Short of a pardon, the governor also has the option of issuing a commutation, or a reduction of a person’s sentence that lets the conviction stand.
Polis’ comments come two months after the Federal Bureau of Prisons requested that Peters be transferred to federal custody. The governor and the state prison department provided scant public comment on the request, prompting several other elected officials — including Rubinstein, Griswold, Attorney General Phil Weiser and a group of county clerks — to publicly urge Polis to reject the request. Some privately feared that he would acquiesce.
Though Polis remained largely mum, state prison officials announced in late November that they would reject the federal government’s request.
Shortly after, the Trump administration announced the gutting of the National Center for Atmospheric Research facility in Boulder and the slashing of various federal funding awards for the state. The president also vetoed legislation that would’ve helped pay for a water pipeline in rural Colorado, and he has insulted Polis on social media and in interviews.
Around the time of the federal government’s request to transfer Peters, Polis met with the Colorado County Clerks Association, its executive director, Matt Crane, said Friday. The meeting was “amicable,” Crane said, but Polis didn’t close the door to granting her clemency of some kind.
“He assured us he wouldn’t make any deals with the Trump administration to release her,” Crane said. “But he did say people can apply for clemency, and he considers them on an individual basis. We certainly understand that. But it’s plainly obvious that Tina is unrepentant, she hasn’t acknowledged any wrongdoing — why that should merit any special treatment is beyond any reasonable logic.”
As for Polis’ new comments, Crane said that it was as if the governor “is setting the table to do something.”
Peters is also challenging her conviction in state court and has asked a federal court to release her while that appeal is considered. The federal court rejected that request, and her attorneys have now signaled that they intend to appeal that decision, too.
Her lawyers told the federal judge that Peters should be released because her mother was sick, because Peters might be sick and because she was being held in solitary confinement. According to Peters’ prison file, prison officials told Peters in December that her mother’s illness didn’t qualify for temporary release.
“Peters went on to say that she plans on having many negative things about (the prison) plastered all over social media and everything will go global about how (the prison) is ran,” according to a note in her file, which The Post obtained through a public records request.
A week later, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was investigating Colorado’s prison system to determine if the facilities were providing adequate medical care and safe conditions. The probe was also set to examine the state’s youth facilities, which have been plagued with reports of poor conditions.
Peters also told a prison staff member in August that she had been on the news and that she was “hoping to get out soon,” according to another note in her file.
Read more on The Fort Morgan Times
