President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has granted a full pardon to imprisoned former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters, igniting a political firestorm and reopening the national debate over the 2020 election.
Trump revealed the decision in a lengthy post on Truth Social, calling Peters a “patriot” and accusing Democrats of deliberately persecuting her for questioning election integrity.
“Tina Peters, a Gold Star Mother who is in poor health, is now serving nine years in a Colorado state prison for challenging the 2020 elections,” Trump wrote. “The left wants her dead.”
Peters, 69, is currently serving a nine-year sentence in Colorado after being convicted in 2024 on state charges tied to accessing and copying voting machine data following the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed she illegally allowed a third party to obtain sensitive election system files while she was serving as Mesa County Clerk and Recorder.
Supporters have long argued Peters was acting as a whistleblower who preserved election data she believed would otherwise be destroyed. They insist her actions were motivated by concerns over transparency, not criminal intent.
Trump leaned heavily into that argument while blasting Democrats for what he described as selective prosecution, according to the Conservative Brief.
“Democrats only think there is one crime, not voting for them,” Trump said. “They prosecuted Tina Peters for demanding honest elections while ignoring real crime.”
Because Peters was convicted under state law, Trump’s pardon does not legally compel Colorado to release her from prison. However, legal analysts say the move places significant political pressure on state officials and could bolster future legal challenges or clemency efforts at the state level.
Trump made clear the pardon was meant as a declaration, not a technicality.
“Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election,” he wrote.
The announcement comes just days after a federal magistrate judge rejected Peters’ habeas corpus petition seeking early release. Her attorney, Peter Ticktin, has repeatedly raised alarms about her health and safety behind bars, claiming she has been attacked multiple times by other inmates.
Ticktin has also accused the justice system of singling Peters out to make an example of anyone who dared question the 2020 results.
Trump echoed that sentiment, directly targeting Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and accusing state officials of prioritizing political revenge over public safety.
“Radical Left Colorado officials ignore violent criminals but threw Tina Peters in prison,” Trump wrote earlier this year. “This is cruel and unusual punishment.”
Colorado officials have rejected those claims, maintaining Peters was convicted for violating election security laws, not for her political views. Weiser previously said the case proved that “no one is above the law.”
The pardon immediately reignited national outrage from Democrats and celebration among election integrity activists, who view Peters as a political prisoner of the post-2020 crackdown.
While the pardon does not automatically free her, it marks Trump’s most forceful intervention yet on her behalf and signals that the fight over the 2020 election is far from over.
