Clerk Granted Clemency Following Apology for Tampering With Voting Machines Now Says She’s Victim of ‘Retribution’

Governor Jared Polis of Colorado likely does not have much of a career in Democratic politics left following his decision to commute the sentence of Tina Peters, who was convicted on multiple charges related to tampering with her county’s voting machines in an attempt to prove that the 2020 election was rigged. Despite issuing an apology before she was granted clemency, Peters now says she did nothing wrong. Peters served as the clerk and recorder of Mesa County from 2019 to 2023, making her the county’s top election official. In 2021, she gave Conan Hayes — a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory — access to the county’s voting machines in an attempt to prove that the 2020 presidential election had been fraudulent. When her office staff asked who Mr. Hayes was, Peters claimed that he was actually an employee named Gerald Wood.The data Mr. Hayes took from the county later showed up on the imageboard website 8kun. The records had been posted by Ron Watkins, another QAnon conspiracy adherent. Peters was later convicted on multiple charges related to the security breach. She was sentenced to nearly nine years in state prison. On May 15, however, Mr. Polis made the decision to commute Peters’ sentence so that she would be eligible for parole on June 1. Nearly all of Colorado’s most prominent Democrats were quick to condemn Mr. Polis’ decision, saying he was undermining the state’s justice system. In a statement Monday, Senator Michael Bennet — who is running for governor — said that Peters’ freedom does nothing to erase the crimes she committed. “Tina Peters’ release does not change the facts of her case, nor does it change our obligation to defend our democracy. At a time when President Trump continues to attack vote-by-mail, undermine confidence in our elections, and pressure public officials to bend to his political agenda, we must be even more vigilant in protecting the rule of law and the integrity of our electoral system,” Mr. Bennet wrote. In a letter to Peters explaining his decision, he wrote that her nearly nine-year sentence was “an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.” He further agreed with a state appellate court which found that the trial judge should not have considered Peters’ belief in 2020 election fraud as a factor in setting the sentence, given her beliefs and her expression of those beliefs — no matter how incorrect they may be — are protected by the First Amendment. What enraged many Democrats was that Mr. Polis believed Peters when she expressed remorse in a message to him. “Importantly, your application demonstrates taking responsibility for your crimes, and a commitment to follow the law going forward. For these reasons, I am commuting your sentence,” Mr. Polis wrote to her at the time. Peters did issue an apology when she was granted clemency by the governor. In a statement, she acknowledged that she broke the law and that she was sorry. “I made mistakes, and for those I am sorry,” Peters wrote on social media. “Five years ago, I misled the secretary of state when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong. I have learned and grown during my time in prison, and going forward I will make sure that my actions always follow the law, and I will avoid the mistakes of the past.”Just hours after she was released on parole Monday, Peters backtracked and doubled down on her election conspiracy theories, saying she was the victim of political retribution because she had exposed fraud. “You see the horrible media and the haters that don’t go after murderers and people like that he chose to pardon, but they go after me,” Peters said during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show shortly after she was released. “My concern is … that I see these elections that are taking place in real time, you know, the Mamdanis, the Virginia governor — Spanberger — and then what’s going on in California and Texas and Maine,” Peters said. “And I know that the Democrats are going to cheat and no one’s really addressing the problem.”She specifically said that she was the victim of “retribution” for “exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped.”“I’m joyful that we still have our liberty, but at the same time I’m very concerned and burdened with why no one is talking about this,” Peters told Mr. Bannon. She says she hopes to work with President Trump on “reform” efforts for both elections and the American prison system. Mr. Trump called for Peters’ release multiple times over the course of the last 18 months, going so far as trying to issue a federal pardon for Peters, even though her conviction on state charges meant the president had no jurisdiction. He also vetoed a Republican-authored bill to supply water to eastern Colorado and disinvited Mr. Polis from a bipartisan meeting of governors at the White House this year in order to pressure Mr. Polis into granting Peters clemency. Speaking to Mr. Bannon on Monday, Peters said she plans to address health issues and readjust to her life outside of prison. “I just got out so I had to have [a friend] actually show me how to use my phone, show me how to get on the internet because it has been so long,” Peters said Monday. She was in jail for 606 days, or just under 20 months.

Clerk Granted Clemency Following Apology for Tampering With Voting Machines Now Says She’s Victim of ‘Retribution’

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