MAY 16, 2026
Colorado Governor Polis commutes Tina Peters' prison sentence, ordering her parole effective June 1
Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of Tina Peters, a former Mesa County clerk convicted of tampering with election equipment, reducing her term from 8 years and 3 months to 4 years and 4.5 months and ordering her released on parole June 1, 2026. Peters was convicted in 2024 on multiple felony counts, including attempts to influence a public servant and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, for facilitating unauthorized access to Mesa County's Dominion Voting Systems election server in 2021. President Trump posted "FREE TINA!" on Truth Social shortly after the announcement.
Polis announced the commutation as part of a broader batch of 44 clemency actions Friday, including 35 pardons and nine commutations, according to Fox News, which cited the governor's office. The executive order explicitly stated that the commutation "shall not in any way affect the underlying criminal conviction." Polis wrote to Peters that she had committed serious crimes and deserved prison time, but described her sentence as "an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes," according to the Associated Press.
The commutation follows a months-long pressure campaign by President Trump, who had previously issued a symbolic pardon of Peters — a gesture with no legal effect, since Peters was convicted of state crimes beyond the reach of presidential pardon power. Trump also uninvited Polis from a White House governors' meeting over the case and, according to the AP, his administration has withheld funds, ended federal programs, denied disaster aid, announced the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, and relocated the U.S. Space Command to Alabama. Polis told CNN he spoke with Trump privately about the case but said he acted on the merits, specifically citing a Colorado appeals court ruling from April that upheld Peters' conviction while finding the trial judge had improperly factored in her protected speech during sentencing.
Peters facilitated the breach by allowing a right-wing activist associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to access and copy Mesa County's election server in 2021, six months after the 2020 election. Video, photographs, and passwords from the upgrade were later posted online after Peters appeared with Lindell at a "cybersymposium" that promised to reveal evidence of election fraud, the AP reported. The breach cost Mesa County nearly one million dollars in replacement equipment, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's office, as cited by Fox News.