PUEBLO, Colo. — Former Mesa County Elections Clerk Tina Peters was released from a Colorado state prison Monday after Gov. Jared Polis granted her plea for clemency and commuted her sentence amid pressure from President Donald Trump.
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) handed a news release to media gathered, including Scripps News Colorado Springs, outside the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo announcing Peters had been processed for release.
The CDOC said it will not provide additional details regarding Peters' residential placement, reporting schedules or travel logisticis.
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Peters, 70, a member of the Republican Party, spent 180 months or more than a year and a half at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo — roughly 18% of her original Oct. 3, 2024 sentence of nine years.
The former elections clerk was convicted on Aug. 12, 2024 of first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, failure to comply with requirements of the secretary of state, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and three counts of attempt to influence a public servant.
Prosecutors said Peters, who was elected clerk of Mesa County in 2018, copied hard drive images of election software in 2021, which ended up online and being discussed by Peters and others at conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell’s South Dakota symposium.
According to prosecutors — who argued during her trial that Peters deceived employees so she could work with Lindell to become famous — the 70-year-old used someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with the MyPillow chief executive access to a Dominion Voting Systems election computer.
In April, a Colorado appeals court upheld Peters' conviction but ordered her to be resentenced, saying the judge wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud.
► 'You are a charlatan': Watch the moment a judge sentenced Tina Peters to nine years in prison:
Trump has championed Peters' cause, who amplified the president’s baseless claims that mass fraud caused his 2020 election loss. Because the 70-year-old was convicted under state law, he did not have the power to pardon her.
But not everyone is happy that Peters is scheduled to be released from prison. The commutation has drawn vehement opposition from members of the governor’s own party who voted May 20 to censure him.
Members of the Democratic Party’s central committee said Peters’ early release "materially harmed the Colorado Democratic Party's institutional credibility.”
In response to his censure, Polis appeared with tape over his mouth during an internal party briefing on Wednesday.
It’s unclear what is next for Peters after her release. A representative for Peters' attorney said she would not speak to the media after being freed, the Associated Press reported.
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