Tina Peters Walks Free After Polis Commutation as 60 Minutes Probes Trump's Pressure on Colorado
Colorado's attorney general is suing the administration over alleged retaliation, citing denied wildfire aid, frozen funds and threats to the state while the election official's sentence stood.
A 60 Minutes investigation published Sunday lays out how the fight over Tina Peters, the former Mesa County, Colorado, election official convicted of tampering with voting equipment, became a test of federal pressure on a state. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence in May after she had served less than two years of a term of nearly nine.
Peters backed President Trump's claim that rigged machines cost him the 2020 election. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, alleges Peters let an unauthorized person pose as a county employee, gave him access to secure voting equipment and allowed him to copy proprietary software. Griswold says Peters had surveillance cameras turned off. The breach came to light when copies of the data surfaced at an election-fraud conference where Peters spoke.
After a two-week trial in 2024, a jury convicted Peters of three misdemeanors and four felonies. Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced her to nearly nine years. "You are no hero," he said. "You abused your position, and you're a charlatan."
Trump pardoned Peters, but because her conviction was under state law the pardon had no legal effect. He called her a patriot and a "hostage" held by Democrats, and called Polis a "weak and pathetic man" and a "sleazebag governor." Last year, while a wildfire ravaged Colorado, Trump promised "harsh measures" if Peters was not released. Federal wildfire aid was denied, and the administration also threatened to withhold food aid from the state's neediest families, canceled $109 million in transportation funding and moved to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
The White House denies any link. Spokesperson Lauren Bis said there was "no politicization" in the president's disaster-relief decisions, and the administration describes the other moves as independent agency decisions. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, also a Democrat, is suing Trump, alleging a retaliation campaign. He said the president is "using bullying, using threats" to undermine state sovereignty.
Polis said Peters "should've gotten a year, two years, three years," and that he was "shocked" when the sentence neared nine years. Critics note a state court was already reconsidering her sentence when he acted, and Polis replied, "There is no timeline for commutations and pardons." The Colorado County Clerks Association said it was "furious" and "disgusted." Its director, Republican Matt Crane, called the commutation "a complete betrayal of the election community."
Since her release Peters has attended the Fraud Fighter Summit in Las Vegas, appeared on Alex Jones' show and met Trump at the White House. In an August interview with 60 Minutes she said "it was not against the law" to turn off the cameras, and she said she does not trust voting machines. She did not clearly say whether she will run for office.
The claims do not match the record. More than 60 lawsuits alleging 2020 voter fraud were dismissed or withdrawn, and investigators at every level, including Republicans, found no fraud that would have changed the outcome. Crane says the records Peters said were "wiped" were cleared in a routine system update and all results were preserved.
After the commutation, $47 million in delayed water-project funding was unfrozen, and last month the administration approved federal wildfire aid for Colorado. Griswold and Crane say Peters' actions, and Trump's support for her, eroded trust in elections and made election workers targets of threats.
