DENVER, Colo., President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon Thursday for former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, even though the move carries no legal weight and cannot free her from the nine-year state prison sentence she is serving for orchestrating a 2020 election-system breach. Trump repeated his false claim that Peters was targeted for trying to ensure “Fair and Honest” elections, despite the fact that courts, audits, and his own former attorney general found no evidence of widespread fraud.
Peters, 70, was convicted for allowing an unauthorized man, later tied to MyPillow CEO and election-fraud promoter Mike Lindell, to use a stolen security badge to access voting-machine software. She then misled investigators about his identity. Legal scholars note the president can pardon only federal crimes, leaving Colorado Gov. Jared Polis as the only official capable of commuting her sentence. As of early Thursday evening, no federal clemency document appeared on the government website.
Trump has increasingly issued symbolic pardons for allies charged in state courts, including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, part of a broader pattern of efforts to legitimize disproven claims about the 2020 election. Peters’ supporters have pressed for her release and sought a prison transfer to federal custody, which Colorado corrections officials have rejected. A federal magistrate judge this week denied her request for release pending appeal, leaving her conviction firmly in place as experts warn Trump’s symbolic clemency campaign risks undermining federalist principles.
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