Trump Demands Release Of Election Denier ‘Hostage' Convicted By Colorado Jury
President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Tina Peters — a key supporter who was behind one of the most significant election security breaches in years — be freed from incarceration in Colorado, where she's serving a yearslong prison sentence.
Peters is a former county clerk found guilty on seven counts by a jury of her peers in state court last year.
In a Truth Social post Monday night, Trump referred to Peters' prosecution as 'a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020.' He attacked Colorado's Democratic attorney general, Phil Weiser, and demanded the Justice Department 'take all necessary action to help secure the release of this 'hostage' being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons.'
Trump said Peters, who he called an 'innocent Political Prisoner,' had 'worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud' — repeating his yearslong lie that he didn't actually lose the 2020 election but, rather, was the victim of an impossibly complex, nationwide fraud scheme.
What Peters actually did — while working as the elected county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado — was allow a computer analyst associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell into a secure in-person software update for the county's election machines, in yet another unsuccessful effort to sow doubt about Joe Biden's 2020 win.
Tina Peters, who at the time was serving as Mesa County, Colorado's clerk, talks to well-wishers at a 2022 rally in downtown Denver.
via Associated Press
The analyst, former pro surfer and RVCA founder Conan Hayes, attended the software update, using the name and recently issued office badge of a Mesa County local. Images of the update process, known as a trusted build, were later shared online and at a 2021 'symposium' on the 2020 election results hosted by Lindell — around the same time state officials arrived at the Mesa County clerk's office to investigate.
Ultimately, a Colorado jury convicted Peters on four felony counts (three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation) and three misdemeanors (official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state). Peters was acquitted on three felony counts, one each of identity theft, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and criminal impersonation.
The case represents one of the most significant U.S. election breaches to result from Trump's attack on the voting process. Prosecutors described Peters as 'a fox guarding the henhouse,' and Colorado Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced her to nine years behind bars, calling her a 'charlatan' who'd peddled election 'snake oil.'
'You're as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen,' Barrett told Peters during sentencing.
'Tina Peters is in prison because of her own actions,' Weiser, who's running for the Democratic nomination to succeed term-limited Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, told HuffPost in a statement responding to Trump's Truth Social attack.
'A grand jury indicted her and a trial jury found her guilty of breaking Colorado's criminal laws. No one is above the law. The Colorado Attorney General's Office will continue to defend this criminal conviction in post-conviction proceedings and on appeal. We are firm in pursuing justice for the people of the state of Colorado, protecting free and fair elections, and standing up for the rule of law.'
'A Grotesque Attempt To Weaponize The Rule Of Law'
Despite the strong evidence, conviction and sentence against Peters — or maybe as a result of them — the Trump administration has since March made some unusually aggressive moves to help Peters.
That month, the Justice Department took the unusual step of filing a statement of interest in a federal court case Peters has filed to challenge her ongoing detention while she appeals her state conviction.
'Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters' case,' the filing read, urging the court's prompt and careful consideration of Peters' habeas corpus petition. The filing also said the Justice Department was reviewing Peters' conviction under an executive order from Trump concerning federal law enforcement — specifically whether Peters' case was 'oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.'
Weiser's office responded in a filing that the Justice Department's statement appeared to be 'a naked, political attempt to threaten or intimidate either this Court or the attorneys that prosecuted this matter.' The filing also called the Trump administration's filing 'a grotesque attempt to weaponize the rule of law.'
'Respondent Attorney General is unaware of the United States ever filing a statement in a habeas application challenging the State of Colorado's criminal proceedings, and the only interest it has articulated is a political concern wholly inappropriate in this judicial proceeding,' the filing read, adding that the Trump administration's 'suggestion that there is a uniquely important interest in advocating for this individual — because of her political views — is unprecedented, highly problematic, and a threat to the rule of law.'
The Trump administration responded to the state's filing with its own, saying Weiser's office had 'baselessly assault[ed] the integrity of the Executive Branch while repeatedly referencing and denigrating Ms. Peters' purported political beliefs in a manner remarkably incongruent with the seriousness of a habeas proceeding.' The state responded that the administration was 'simply parrot[ting] arguments already advanced by Ms. Peters' counsel.'
At a hearing two weeks ago, Colorado Chief Deputy Attorney General Natalie Hanlon Leh said of the federal government's recent involvement in the case: 'This cannot become a new norm.'
On Monday, federal Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak denied what he construed as the state's motion to 'strike' the Trump administration's statement of interest, calling it 'premature.'
Varholak separately on Monday ordered Peters to demonstrate why her habeas corpus application was not a 'mixed petition' — that is, improperly filed in federal court before she exhausted potential remedies in state court.
Around the same time, Trump targeted the state's judicial process on Truth Social.
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