Trump says he’s ‘pardoned’ a Colorado clerk convicted of election tampering. Can he? : NPR
President Trump said he was pardoning a former Colorado county clerk who was convicted of tampering with voting materials to prove false claims of election fraud. But its powers do not extend to state crimes.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump said he was pardoning one of the most ardent election deniers still in prison. That’s what he says. Tina Peters, a former Colorado elections clerk, is serving a nine-year sentence for tampering with election materials. Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland is covering this story. Good morning.
BENTE BIRKELAND, BYLINE: Hello.
INSKEEP: He says he pardons Tina Peters. Can the president pardon Tina Peters?
BIRKELAND: No, he can’t forgive Peters. Peters was convicted in 2024 in state court, so the only person who could pardon Tina Peters is Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis. In a statement, Polis reiterated that President Trump has no jurisdiction over state law and state crimes and said that is a matter for the courts to decide. Colorado Secretary of State, Democrat Jena Griswold, called Trump’s social media post an illegal intrusion on states’ rights.
JENA GRISWOLD: Tina Peters compromised her own voting equipment trying to prove Trump’s lie. She was convicted by a jury of her peers of several crimes committed in a conservative Colorado county. And she is currently serving her sentence. She is not a political prisoner. She’s a criminal.
INSKEEP: It’s really interesting, Bente, because we had all this controversy in the 2020 election that Trump lost, where there were all sorts of stories, never validated, about alleged manipulation of voting materials. And it turned out that someone had been tampering with Trump’s equipment. What were the details of his case?
BIRKELAND: So Peters is 70 years old. And she was a Republican county clerk in Mesa County. And it’s in western Colorado. And what happened happened months after the 2020 presidential election. And that was after all the false allegations were circulating that the election was stolen. Peters allowed an unauthorized person to access the county’s Dominion voting machines. She said she was looking for voter fraud. She was convicted of several felonies and misdemeanors last year. And Trump and his allies hailed her as a patriot.
INSKEEP: What was his defense?
BIRKELAND: Peters argued that she was only preserving election records and that everything she did was within her authority as county clerk. Peters’ lawyers say the state court failed to consider a number of federal laws and violated the First Amendment. His lawyer is Peter Ticktin. And he’s an ally of President Trump. In fact, they went to high school together. I spoke to him about the case recently. And he says the government has been used as a weapon against Trump supporters like Peters.
PETER TICKTIN: Tina Peters is a proud American. And she’s not at all ashamed or ashamed of it. She is proud of what she did because she is not a criminal. He’s just a good person.
INSKEEP: Wait a minute. So she had a First Amendment right to allow unauthorized access to a Dominion voting machine?
BIRKELAND: The First Amendment right is really focused on the length of one’s sentence and also, you know, one’s appeal process.
REGISTRATION: OK. So what’s next for Peters?
BIRKELAND: Well, that appeal of his conviction and oral arguments in that case are scheduled for January. The U.S. Department of Justice also asked Colorado to transfer Peters to federal custody, citing security concerns. The state denied this request.
INSKEEP: OK, so at the end of the day, President Trump says I forgive this person. Nothing actually happened because she’s in state custody, right?
BIRKELAND: Yes, that’s true.
REGISTRATION: OK. Bente Birkeland from Colorado Public Radio, thank you very much for your information. I really appreciate it.
BIRKELAND: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY NOISES, “THE HUNGRY YEARS”)
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