Trump administration seeks custody of imprisoned Colorado elections clerk

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 8:58 PM EST, November 14, 2025


DENVER (AP) — The Trump administration is seeking a transfer from state prison to federal custody of a former Colorado county clerk who has become a hero to election conspiracy theorists, the state and one of her lawyers said Friday.

The Colorado Department of Corrections said Friday that it received a letter from the federal Bureau of Prisons regarding Tina Peters on Wednesday. Neither the department nor the Bureau of Prisons immediately responded to a request to provide a copy of the letter but a corrections department spokesperson, Alondra Gonzalez, confirmed the letter was a request to move Peters to federal custody.

A member of Peters’ legal team, Peter Ticktin, said he had seen the letter and also described it as a request to move her to a federal prison to serve out her sentence there. “It is not to have her released,” he said. While Ticktin said the letter didn’t say why the agency wanted to move Peters, he believes it is so she could more easily be involved in investigations into voting machines in the 2020 presidential election and because of health problems she has been having in state prison.

Peters, 70, was convicted of orchestrating a scheme to breach voting machine data driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Her release from prison has become a cause celebre in the election conspiracy movement.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/colorado-trump-election-conspiracy-2020-prison-010cf75d32459f3a40a5fc4418dfc1fd

---

REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143563209

This is a STATE CASE. I repeat - THIS IS A STATE CASE.

[groundloop]

1. Bullshit it's not to have her released.

tRump will release her and put her in charge of federal elections.

[IbogaProject]

12. Maybe he wants to "Epstein" her?

[popsdenver]

16. Or

camp cupcake her like Ghislaine..........

[riversedge]

2. "However, because she was found guilty on state charges, Trump cannot outright pardon her -- that power belongs to Colora

Crooks everywhere in Trump's Departments and Cabinet!


..............Peters, the former Republican clerk of Mesa, Colorado, was found guilty last year on state charges of participating in a scheme that hoped to prove Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020. She was sentenced to nine years in prison and is serving her sentence at a women’s prison in Pueblo, Colorado. However, because she was found guilty on state charges, Trump cannot outright pardon her — that power belongs to Colorado’s Democratic governor. But that hasn’t stopped her allies from trying to get her out of prison.

One of the people making the biggest push internally on her behalf is Ed Martin, who is serving as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department after he failed to get enough support to serve as the US attorney in Washington.

Martin has continued to advocate for relief for Peters in recent weeks, several people familiar with the push told CNN, even though it is extremely unusual for the Justice Department to intervene in a state case this way. The department has already involved itself in a long-shot federal case, known as a habeas petition, that Peters filed in March, and urged a federal judge to free her from state prison while she appeals her conviction. That matter is still pending, but a decision is expected this year.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/politics/tina-peters-pardon-push-trump

[AverageOldGuy]

14. What is the life expectancy . . .

. . . of a 70-yr-old convict in state prison?

[riversedge]

24. I do not know but I thought of her age also--but with good behavior she could be out a few years earlier.

[TommyT139]

28. She was old enough try to help steal an election.

The only downside is that a growing number of prisoners have chronic health and cognitive issues, which the prisons have to pay for. Because Constitution...not that trumpists care about that.

[GB_RN]

25. Would It Be Wrong Of Me To Say...

Hopefully, very, very short?

😂

[MarineCombatEngineer]

27. Not at all,

in fact, it would be right for you to say that.

[riversedge]

3. "Democratic Governor Jared Polis has been adamant that the state will not cave to pressure to release Peters.

Nov 14, 2025
President Donald Trump has threatened retaliation if Colorado doesn’t release his political ally from prison.
Transcript

Democratic Governor Jared Polis has been adamant that the
1:36
state will not cave to pressure to release Peters.
1:38
He told us,
1:38
quote,
1:39
justice is not for sale.
...........

[hlthe2b]

4. It appears they want to transfer her by extortion but if that fails bring a Federal charge...

But those made-up charges are extremely unlikely to result in anything but early dismissal. If they do manage a conviction which would allow them to eventually free her from Federal custody (pardon, commutation, or whatever)... she'd still have to go back to state prison to complete THAT sentence. So, I do not get what their big plan is. Maybe they are that damned ignorant to think the first part would end the entire matter.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

5. Colorado should tell the feds to fuck off, this is a state case,

you have zero business interfering, if you want to transfer her, then by all means, but not until she serves out her state sentence.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

36. Maddow Blog-A two-tiered system: Trump calls for Tina Peters to be freed from prison

Tina Peters was sent to prison after acting on Trump’s 2020 election lies. The president, indifferent to her guilt, now wants her freed.

MSNBC: A two-tiered system: Trump calls for Tina Peters to be freed from prison www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— (@jwwcan.bsky.social) 2025-05-06T18:59:49.136Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/two-tiered-system-trump-calls-tina-peters-freed-prison-rcna205070

In early March, Donald Trump’s Justice Department raised eyebrows with an unexpected move: The DOJ’s civil division unexpectedly filed a brief in federal court, raising “concerns” about the criminal conviction of a former Colorado clerk named Tina Peters.

The effort didn’t amount to much, but as NBC News reported, the president’s interest in the case has apparently intensified.

In a Truth Social post tonight, Trump called for former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters to be released from prison and said he was directing the Justice Department to take ‘all necessary action’ to help secure her release.

In a bizarre online harangue, Trump rewrote recent history, claiming that Peters simply “worked to expose and document Democrat [sic] Election Fraud.” He added, “Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020.”

In case that weren’t quite enough, the president concluded, “I am hereby directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this ‘hostage’ being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons. FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!”......

Time will tell what, if anything, the Justice Department can do about Peters’ incarceration.

For all of the hysterical and baseless Republican conspiracy theories during Joe Biden’s presidency about “weaponized” prosecutions and a “two-tiered” justice system, Trump and his team are creating the very conditions the GOP condemned. The incumbent president — through his scandalous pardons, his intervention in cases such as Peters’ and his willingness to sic prosecutors on his perceived political enemies — is going out of his way to make clear that his allies will be held to different legal standards than everyone else.

The brazenness is so plainly ridiculous, the Republican administration is hardly even trying to keep up appearances — and there’s every reason to believe this will get worse in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

38. Thanks for the link,

I've been following this pretty closely and I do believe that Been A Dick and his DoJ are going to get their collective asses kicked on this.
The idea that they have ANY jurisdiction in this is just laughable, but that's this whole regime, laughable.

Gov. Polis will, once again, tell the Feds to fuck right off and there's really nothing they can legally do about it.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

39. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Been A Dick Donald tries to send his ICEhole goons

to try to bust her out of prison, that's the kind of mentality he has.

[lastlib]

6. Let's put tRump and Martin in jail WITH her,,,

and solve ALL our problems!

[Historic NY]

7. She is not remorseful and was combative right down to sentencing

with the Judge..

[bluestarone]

8. Well now, THIS kinda tells the story of Maxwell doesn't it?

Jesus Christ, how this smells of we want to take care of our own special privileged ASSHOLES!!

[Hotler]

9. Hold the line governor and ride it to through courts. Drag it out long and slow.

Peters hasn't felt enough consequences yet.

[generalbetrayus]

10. I'm proud to live in Colorado where the Democratic politicians have the balls to tell Orange Julius Caesar

to GO THE HELL, LARD BOY!

[Americanme]

11. She is a hero to conspiracy theorists, his base.

He is losing his base because of Epstein, he needs to get them back, so he will release their hero, regardless of the law.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

13. Been A Dick won't get the chance to release her,

CO. will tell him to fuck right off and there's nothing he can do about it.

[Jimvanhise]

15. VOTING MACHINES?!

Fox News and others were desperate to prove voting machine tampering but they failed and instead had to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars. This is just Trump rewriting history again before he drops dead. Trump is elderly and in poor health but his ego keeps pushing him to humiliate himself.

[chia]

17. Every day it's a new crazy.

[Nigrum Cattus]

18. repugs are such complete un-American losers

they are completely 100% American taliban now
project 2025, white "christian" nationalists have no morals
or respect of American values & history

[Phoenix61]

19. If she's transferred she'll end up at the same prison

Ghislaine Maxwell is at. Probably with the same concierge services.

[dalton99a]

20. +1

[Fil1957]

21. She is claiming that her lung cancer has recurred. As much has I hate what she has done, if that turns out to be true,

she should be granted compassionate release.

If on the other hand, that's not true, and she is reasonably healthy she needs to serve out her sentence.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

22. No she shouldn't,

she tried to overturn a legitimate election, she lied, she let an authorized person tamper with the voting machines and at her sentencing, she was combative and showed no remorse.

I couldn't care less if her cancer has returned, fuck her, she can rot and die in prison where she belongs.

[markodochartaigh]

31. I see her cancer as a separate issue.

Every prisoner is entitled, in my opinion, to the best care that we can provide whether they are actually innocent and had to plea bargain or whether they are guilty of heinous crimes like trying to subvert the US election system.
And her family should be allowed to visit her in the prison infirmary every day if they wish, right up to the end.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

32. Agreed.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

35. This judge's comments made me smile

[bluestarone]

40. ASbsolutely NOT!!

NO WAY IN HELL!! The only transfer, (IF she gets it) is straight to HELL!!

[SunSeeker]

23. Fuck NO! Trump wants to use her to commit more crimes!

A member of Peters’ legal team, Peter Ticktin, said he had seen the letter and also described it as a request to move her to a federal prison to serve out her sentence there. “It is not to have her released,” he said. While Ticktin said the letter didn’t say why the agency wanted to move Peters, he believes it is so she could more easily be involved in investigations into voting machines in the 2020 presidential election and because of health problems she has been having in state prison.

[wcmagumba]

26. This is total BS...once the t-rump toadies have her, they will release and pardon her...it's obviously their intention..

[FakeNoose]

34. Yes of course, but maybe they want to pick her brain first

After all, voting machine tampering has become something of a lost art. Chump really wants to know how she did it.

[Ocelot II]

29. Why? And to the same cushy camp as Ghislaine Maxwell?

Maybe they could be roommates, take spa treatments together and take turns doing each other's nails? Maxwell is a lot classier; maybe she could share some of the makeup and couture tips Peters desperately needs for when she gets out and goes on the MAGA lecture tour.

[markodochartaigh]

30. This case and

the case in Coffee County Georgia received almost no attention in the national media. It is a disgrace.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

33. Trump admin threatens Colorado in bid to spring imprisoned election denier

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, the report noted, has previously said he will not capitulate on the issue, and “justice is not for sale.”

Colorado will tell Trump to fuck off

www.rawstory.com/tina-peters-...

— CommonSense (@comminsense.bsky.social) 2025-11-15T04:18:29.786Z

https://www.rawstory.com/tina-peters-2674297768/

The Trump administration is taking steps to threaten the state of Colorado, in an attempt to compel the release of an infamous former Mesa County elections clerk serving a nine-year prison sentence for an illegal scheme to try to prove President Donald Trump's election conspiracy theories.

According to 9 News, "The Colorado Department of Corrections confirms it received notice from the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Nov. 12, a concrete move toward a speculative strategy" to spring Tina Peters. "President Trump cannot pardon the former Mesa County clerk, who is serving a nine-year prison term on state charges for a scheme to sneak fellow election deniers into Colorado’s voting systems in a search for election rigging."

Per Trump's pardon attorney Ed Martin, “We did it in a way that puts the right kind of pressure on them. If the feds say we want something, you change your tune.”....

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, the report noted, has previously said he will not capitulate on the issue, and “justice is not for sale.”

[MarineCombatEngineer]

37. How well is that working out so far Martin you worthless POS?

Not very well huh.
Gov. Polis is going to clean your fucking MAGAt clock.