Tina Peters pardon by Jared Polis wrongly subverts process

It is entirely possible for two competing concepts to be true in these highly tribal, us-versus-them times—albeit difficult to imagine.

Tina Peters, Colo. He personally enriched himself and betrayed the public trust by executing a bird-brained scheme to “prove” that the 2020 election in Mesa County was fraudulent against President Trump. The former county clerk and MAGA warrior deserved to go to prison.

But the nine-year prison sentence he received was excessively harsh and improperly imposed as punishment for Peters’ false and reckless public statements that were a clear violation of his 1st Amendment rights, the appeals court ruled. The court again rejected the case due to regret.

That’s when Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, stepped in.

And he stepped into it.

Over strong objections from fellow Democrats and many Republicans, including Peters’ prosecutor and the majority of election clerks in Colorado, Polis commuted Peters’ sentence, clearing the way for Peters’ parole on June 1 after less than two years in prison.

This shows that three wrongs do not make a right.

Peters, 70, was convicted of multiple felonies, including four felonies, for conspiring to allow an unauthorized person access to supposedly compromised voting equipment. He then lied to cover up his actions.

Trump won Mesa County, a conservative stronghold, by nearly 30 percentage points, making Peters’ actions (other than illegal) inexplicably stupid. But her connivance has made her the belle of Mar-a-Lago and a celebrity on the election denial circuit, flying all over the country and spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Trump has loudly urged his release.

His corrupt Department of Justice attempted to break Peters out of a Colorado prison, presumably to free him from a federal facility. The president issued a symbolic “pardon,” but Peters’ conviction on state charges left him beyond his warped reach. Trump insulted and belittled Polis; among other things, he suggested that she was “rotting in hell.” More importantly, the vengeful president has waged economic war against Colorado.

Among punitive actions, Trump cut federal funding to the state, closed a climate research center in Boulder and moved the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Alabama.

Polis, who has a broad libertarian streak, insisted that Peters’ release was not a capitulation to Trump but rather a matter of principle, which seems plausible to the extent that the governor could foresee the shirtless hell he would receive from his fellow Democrats.

The many people outraged by Polis’ decision include Colorado’s two U.S. senators, as well as other vocal critics of the vote. (One of those angry senators is Michael Bennet, who is running to replace Polis.) There have been calls within his own party to investigate and remove the governor, who is rumored to be a potential presidential candidate in 2028.

“He was aiming for a national profile,” said pollster Floyd Ciruli, who has been surveying Colorado voters for decades. “That makes it a lot harder.”

That seems like an understatement, given Democrats’ melted anger.

The judge who sentenced Peters in October 2024 was brutal.

“You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen,” District Judge Matthew Barrett scolded. “You are just as privileged as they are, and you have used that privilege to gain power, a following, and fame. You are no hero… You are a charlatan who has used and still uses your previous position in office to sell snake oil that has been proven time and time again to be junk.”

Amine.

The problem, according to the Colorado Court of Appeals, was that Barrett unfairly punished Peters not only for her illegal actions but also for speaking out about alleged election fraud.

“The crime was not the court’s misdirection, but belief, that such election fraud existed,” the three-judge panel wrote in a unanimous decision in April. he wrote. “His attempt to gather evidence of such fraud was his deceptive actions.”

The justices, all appointed by the Democratic Party, upheld Peters’ conviction and rejected his request to transfer the case from Barrett. They ordered him to come up with a new sentence.

This is where Polis should have left things alone, placing Barrett on the bench.

Instead, the governor intervened and essentially cut Peters’ sentence in half.

“The crimes for which you have been convicted are very serious and you deserve to remain in prison,” police wrote in the mitigation letter. “However, this is a highly unusual and lengthy sentence for a first-time offender committing non-violent crimes.”

In response, Peters thanked Polis, apologized and expressed regret.

“I made mistakes and I’m sorry for them,” Peters wrote in a statement addressed to the governor. “I learned and grew during my time in prison, and going forward I will always ensure that my actions comply with the law and avoid the mistakes of the past.”

We will see about this. If Peters gets on the crazy plane of Mike Lindell, famous for MyPillow and election rejection, we will know that the Police have been deceived.

It’s easy to see his actions as capitulation to Trump. If so, there was no point in the Police giving up. The president is a tyrant to the core and always demands more.

But if you take the governor at his word and his actions were not meant to appease, what he did was still bad. He imitated one of Trump’s worst habits, short-circuiting a well-established, independent process by replacing it with his own stubborn judgment.

Pride, they say, comes before a fall. So is arrogance in Polis’ case.