In a surprise twist of fate, a Democrat governor has announced that he’s considering clemency for a convicted Trump supporter.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday in an interview that he’s considering clemency for Tina Peters, a former Mesa County clerk.
Peters was previously prosecuted and imprisoned for her role in a 2021 security breach of the county’s election systems that stemmed from her efforts to access and copy data from the county’s voting machines. She was subsequently sentenced to nine years in prison in October of 2024. As of January 2026, she remained behind bars in Colorado.
Speaking with a CBS News affiliate on Thursday, Polis said that he’s considering clemency because her sentence is too “harsh.”
“She got a sentence that was harsh,” he said. “It was a nine-year sentence. So we always look at people’s sentences.”
He also cited Peters’ age. She’s 70.
“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,” he said.
This change in attitude is a big deal because it was only a month ago that President Donald Trump called Polis a “sleazebag” for refusing to free Peters.
“The SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters, who was unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do, cheating on Elections, out of jail!” the president wrote on Truth Social at the time.
“She was convicted for trying to stop Democrats from stealing Colorado Votes in the Election. She was preserving Election Records, which she was obligated to do under Federal Law. She has now served more than one year in jail, and has eight years to go,” he added.
The president even tried freeing her by issuing a federal pardon, though sadly, the pardon did not affect her state sentence.
UPDATE: Trump has pardoned Tina Peters for her role in illegally accessing Dominion voting machines.
Problem? Her crimes were STATE, not federal. So his “pardon” amounts to him walking outside and yelling “Abracadabra” at the clouds. Tina will remain in PRISON. https://t.co/PMibfhuh5S pic.twitter.com/xOobxAxAOq
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) December 16, 2025
After Trump filed the pardon, Peters tried to take matters into her own hands by having her attorneys ask the Colorado Court of Appeals to order that she “must be released from custody forthwith.”
“In a motion … Peters’ lawyers said the Colorado appeals court no longer has jurisdiction over her case because of a Dec. 5 pardon issued by Trump,” the New Haven Register reported. “They also asked the court to release her from prison because of the pardon.”
Polis, meanwhile, has himself also dismissed the pardon.
“Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and in a Republican county of Colorado and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws including criminal impersonation,” he said in a statement.
“No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions. This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders,” he added.
According to the left, Trump has since then been “punishing” Colorado because of Polis’ intransigence.
“Colorado’s attorney general accused the Trump administration on Thursday of waging a ‘revenge campaign’ by choking off funds and ending federal programs over the state’s refusal to accede to the Republican president’s demands to free an imprisoned elections clerk,” PBS News reported Friday.
In a statement, he claimed that Trump had dissolved a climate research lab, threatened to cut transportation money, and relocated U.S. Space Command to Alabama “to coerce Colorado to end mail-in voting and to release Tina Peters.”
“When the threats alone did not work, the Trump Administration followed through, employing various punishments against Colorado for its exercise of sovereign powers,” he continued.
The White House has denied these allegations.
“President Trump is using his lawful and discretionary authority to ensure federal dollars are being spent in a way that aligns with the agenda endorsed by the American people when they resoundingly reelected the President,” a spokesperson said.
