Federal judge declines to release Tina Peters, the only Trump ally in prison for 2020 election-related crimes

By Marshall Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Monday refused to release from prison former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the only ally of President Donald Trump currently behind bars for crimes related to the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Last year, a state jury convicted Peters, the former Republican clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, of participating in a criminal scheme with fellow election deniers to breach her county’s secure voting systems, in hopes of proving Trump’s false claims of massive fraud.

Trump has championed the case of Peters, 70, who is now one year into a nine-year prison sentence, calling her an “innocent political prisoner.” CNN recently reported that Trump is being strongly encouraged to more aggressively intervene in the matter, to try to get her out of prison.

Peters filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year, known as a habeas petition, arguing that she should be released because of constitutional concerns from her trial, specifically that her free speech rights were violated. But US Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak rejected Peters’ longshot bid to be released.

Varholak rejected Peters’ bid to be released immediaty because, he said, this was not the right time or proper jurisdiction for her legal challenge.

“Ms. Peters raises important constitutional questions concerning whether the trial court improperly punished her more severely because of her protected First Amendment speech,” Varholak wrote. “But because this question remains pending before Colorado courts, this Court must abstain from answering that question until after the Colorado courts have decided the issue.”

The Trump administration is separately trying to get her out of prison or to move her into federal custody but has been rebuffed thus far by Colorado officials.

Because these were state crimes, there isn’t much Trump can do for Peters.

Trump has publicly threatened “harsh measures” against Colorado if Peters isn’t freed and n a highly unorthodox move earlier this year, the Justice Department intervened in Peters’ federal habeas petition, urging Varholak to consider freeing Peters from prison. However, the Justice Department hasn’t been much involved in the case since an April hearing.

Trump has also bashed Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and state Attorney General Phil Weiser, both Democrats, who have thus far resisted pressure from Republicans to free Peters.

Polis has said he won’t pardon Peters as part of any deal with Trump. Weiser previously told CNN there is “no basis” for Peters to be released and that he would oppose “any scheme to prevent her from being held accountable under Colorado law.”

Peters maintains her innocence and is appealing her conviction.

‘Get off your asses and get me out!’

After Trump lost in 2020, Peters got involved with other activists who tried to prove Trump’s fraud claims by breaching voting systems in Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, and other states.

They were acting based on lies peddled by Trump’s own lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani, that the 2020 results were rigged by machines belonging to Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic.

Peters was later caught, indicted by a Republican prosecutor and found guilty of multiple felonies by a jury in her ruby-red county.

Peters has continued promoting false claims about the 2020 election from the La Vista Correctional Facility – a medium-security women’s prison in Pueblo, Colorado.

Through allies, she has maintained an active presence on X. Among other things, she has promoted depositions that her lawyers took over the summer, claiming to be from anonymous Venezuelan informants with information about US voting machines.

She has also apparently latched onto an idea floated by Trump administration officials and right-wing conspiracy theorists – that the Justice Department can move her from state prison into a more comfortable federal facility, because she needs protection as a witness in a potential federal probe into the 2020 election.

And in October, she posted a lengthy message bashing the Justice Department for not doing enough to get her out of prison: “The President has demanded my release four times… why is the DOJ defying Trump’s demands? Get off your asses and get me out!”

Ed Martin, a Trump loyalist who is the top Justice Department official overseeing clemency matters, recently said the administration is pressuring Colorado to transfer Peters into federal custody.

“We did it in a way that puts the right kind of pressure on them,” Martin said of the Trump administration’s contacts with Colorado officials. “If you’re Colorado … if the feds say we want something, you change your tune.”

The-CNN-Wire
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