By Blessing Nweke
President Donald Trump announced Thursday night that he is granting a full pardon to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County, Colorado elections clerk now serving a nine-year prison sentence for her role in a voting equipment security breach tied to false claims about the 2020 election.
In a Truth Social post, Trump portrayed Peters as a “Patriot” unjustly targeted for her efforts to “expose voter fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election,” and accused Democrats of relentlessly pursuing her. However, legal experts and Colorado officials immediately underscored that presidential pardon powers apply only to federal offenses, not state convictions — meaning the proclamation has no legal effect on her current incarceration.
Peters was convicted in October 2024 by a Colorado state court on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts related to allowing an unauthorized individual access to secured election equipment and misleading about their identity, in what prosecutors described as part of a scheme fueled by unfounded election fraud theories. Earlier this week, a federal judge rejected her request to be released from prison while she appeals her conviction.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser responded to Trump’s announcement by dismissing the pardon’s validity, saying no president has authority to pardon someone convicted under state law. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold echoed that Trump’s action had no constitutional basis and risked undermining state sovereignty.
Trump’s pardon of Peters follows a series of similar symbolic clemency actions this year for allies associated with efforts to contest the 2020 election outcome, including legal figures such as Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows. Despite the pardon claim, Peters remains in state custody, and only the Colorado governor or courts could alter her sentence or conviction status.
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