Donald Trump tried to make a splash on Thursday night, announcing on Truth Social that he was issuing a full pardon to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — a hero in his narrative of the “Rigged 2020 Presidential Election.” But the move immediately hit a brick wall: Peters is doing time on state convictions, and a presidential pardon can’t touch those.
Still, Trump blasted out his declaration as if he could snap Peters out of a Colorado prison by sheer force of will. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections,” he wrote. “Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”
Reality arrived fast. Peters is serving a nine-year sentence for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines — charges brought in state court. No federal charges. No federal jurisdiction. No presidential pardon power.
And Trump’s announcement came just days after a federal magistrate judge denied Peters’ request to be released during her appeal, underscoring that the legal system is moving full-speed ahead regardless of whatever proclamations are coming from Truth Social.
Colorado officials didn’t mince words. Secretary of State Jena Griswold fired off a statement saying, “Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers for state crimes in a state Court. Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser followed up, calling the idea that a president could pardon someone convicted on state charges “an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires,” adding, “The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”
Peters’ case was already notorious in Colorado. Prosecutors said that in 2021 she and others “devised and executed a deceptive scheme” to let an unauthorized person access voting machines. Copies of the equipment ended up online, feeding national conspiracy theories claiming the machines were “rigged.” A jury convicted her on seven counts, including multiple counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.
When she was sentenced in October 2024, Judge Matthew Barrett called her a “charlatan” and “as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen.” Peters maintained she’d “never done anything with malice to break the law,” but the jury didn’t buy it.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was equally blunt Thursday: “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. No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions.”
That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking a personal interest in Peters’ fate. Back in August, he warned that he would take “harsh measures” if she wasn’t released. More recently, the Federal Bureau of Prisons requested the state transfer her into federal custody — a suggestion that sparked immediate pushback from Colorado officials.
Meanwhile, Peters’ attorney, Peter Ticktin, is trying to carve out a new theory of presidential power. He claims Trump’s authority could extend to state crimes, even admitting the issue “has never been raised in any court.” Still, Ticktin praised Trump for issuing his nonbinding pardon anyway, saying Peters “needs to be released while the issues are being resolved.”
“I am greatly thankful for President Trump,” Ticktin wrote. “He has always been true to his beliefs and continues to fight against injustice. God bless our President.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to deploy his pardon power to bolster loyalists connected to his ongoing election-fraud narrative. Shortly after his inauguration, he offered pardons or commutations to everyone convicted for participating in the Jan. 6 attack. Just last month he pardoned dozens of people accused in state court of aiding efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including “alternate state electors” and Rudy Giuliani.
But in Peters’ case, the limits of presidential power are unmistakable. Trump’s dramatic announcement may have energized his base, but legally it changes nothing. Peters remains exactly where she was before his Truth Social post: in a Colorado prison, serving a Colorado sentence for Colorado crimes — far outside the reach of a presidential pen.
