Trump pardons former Colorado elections clerk, but it alone won’t free her from prison

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

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.

Trump’s pardon power does not extend to state crimes like those for which Peters was convicted last year and sentenced to nine years in prison.

“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump said in a social media post that repeated his false claims of election fraud.

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted of allowing a man to misuse a security card to access the election system and being deceptive about that person’s identity. The man was affiliated with MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.

The pardon underscores Trump’s continued efforts to promote the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him even though courts around the country and Trump’s own attorney general at the time found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome. Reviews, recounts and audits of the election in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss also affirmed Joe Biden’s victory.

Trump issued similar symbolic pardons last month for his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and dozens of others charged in state courts with backing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Peters has been unapologetic about what happened, and her case has become a cause célèbre in the election conspiracy movement. Her allies have for months pressured Trump to try to free her from prison. His administration last month tried to have Peters moved from state to federal prison. State officials oppose the transfer.

A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected her bid to be released from prison while she appeals her state conviction.