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Presidential Clemency Record

Tina Peters

Pardon

  /   2025–Present

Record at a Glance

Clemency type
Pardon
Presidential term
2025–Present
Federal district
N/A
Offense
“For those offenses she has or may have committed or taken part in related to election integrity and security during the period from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021”
Sentence
N/A
Current status
Released on parole June 1, 2026, following state commutation; convictions affirmed on appeal. Colorado Supreme Court review denied September 21, 2026.

Original Case

Tina Peters was the elected clerk and recorder of Mesa County, Colorado, when she became involved in an effort to copy data from the county's election system after the 2020 election. During a scheduled software update in 2021, an outside computer expert was brought into a secure election-equipment setting under another person's identity. Copies of the election system were made, and photographs and video showing confidential voting-system passwords later appeared online. Peters said she was trying to preserve records and investigate claimed election irregularities; prosecutors treated the conduct as an unauthorized breach of equipment entrusted to her office. A jury convicted Peters in 2024 on seven of ten state counts: three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with requirements of the Colorado secretary of state. She was acquitted or not convicted on the remaining charged counts, which included a second conspiracy count, criminal impersonation, and identity theft. The trial court imposed six months in county jail followed by eight years and three months in state prison.

Clemency

Trump signed a federal pardon for Peters on December 5, 2025, covering specified federal offenses arising from her 2020–2021 election-related conduct. Because a president cannot pardon state crimes, the grant did not erase or shorten her Colorado convictions or sentence. The Colorado Court of Appeals later rejected her argument that the federal pardon displaced the state judgment. Her release resulted instead from a separate state action. After the appellate court affirmed the convictions but reversed the sentence for resentencing, Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted the state sentence in May 2026 and directed that Peters be released on parole effective June 1.

Trump Connection

Peters became a prominent figure among activists who challenged the 2020 election results, a cause closely identified with Trump after his defeat. Her Colorado prosecution arose from actions she said were intended to preserve election records and investigate irregularities; prosecutors and the jury viewed the conduct as an unauthorized breach of the election system. Trump adopted Peters’s account when announcing clemency, describing her as a ‘Patriot’ who had tried to expose voter fraud. He signed a federal pardon covering specified 2020–2021 election-related conduct even though her convictions were state offenses beyond a president’s pardon power. The grant therefore expressed Trump’s political support and legal protection against covered federal exposure, but it could not release her from Colorado custody; Governor Jared Polis’s later state commutation did that.

Since Clemency

Sources

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