Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Tina Peters case: “You can’t give the president the headspace on this”

During his last year in office, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will make his final decisions on which prisoners in the state he will grant clemency. Among those under consideration is Tina Peters, who was convicted of multiple felonies stemming from unauthorized accessing of voting machines, and who President Trump has repeatedly demanded be set free. 

Peters, a former county clerk of Mesa County in western Colorado and former candidate for Colorado secretary of state, was sentenced in October 2024 to nine years in prison after being convicted on seven of 10 state charges, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.

Polis previously refused to move Peters to federal custody, but has also said recently that he would be looking into her case in his final year. Mr. Trump said in December he was granting a pardon to Peters, even though the president’s pardon power is widely understood to only apply to federal crimes, and she was charged in state court.

“You can’t give the president the headspace on this,” Polis told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil. “You look at every case on clemency on the merits. You have somebody who is nonviolent, a first-time offender, elderly. On the other hand, does she take full accountability for her crime? We don’t look at this in isolation.” 

Peters insisted, even during her sentencing, that she did nothing wrong and was trying to prevent and discover voter fraud. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, contrary to Mr. Trump’s repeated claims.

“I have dozens of these requests that we look at regularly, and I want to make sure that we don’t look at this one in any different way,” Polis said, but noted he has not made a decision.

Polis said he will only make his decision based on the facts of the case, “and there’s some that work in her favor, some that work against her.”

Polis said he has a harder time with cases where people have committed violent crimes.

“To let somebody out at some point — have they made restitution? — is a tough decision, but it’s one that I’m never afraid to shy away from,” he said.