It’s absolutely bonkers how this saga keeps twisting like a pretzel in a political funhouse mirror. Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted by a jury in a deep-red Trump stronghold for letting an outsider copy sensitive voting machine data during a 2021 software update—actions that led to passwords and images leaking online—all in a quest to hunt for 2020 election fraud that courts have repeatedly found nonexistent.
She caught a well-deserved nine-year sentence in 2024, with the judge blasting her as a “charlatan” peddling “snake oil.” Yet now a Colorado appeals court has upheld the conviction but tossed the sentence, ruling the judge improperly dinged her for exercising free speech by continuing to push her wackadoodle beliefs. So she’s headed back for resentencing, potentially walking free after time served. At the same time, the whole thing has morphed into a national cause célèbre with Trump pushing pardons (that don’t apply to state crimes) and threats of “harsh measures” against Colorado.
Via the Associated Press:
Judges on the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction in a 74-page ruling that rejected the notion that Trump has authority to pardon her state crimes. But they said a lower court judge should not have considered Peters’ continued promotion of election fraud conspiracies when he sentenced her in 2024.
One of Tina Peters’ lawyers, John Case, said the court’s ruling affirmed the importance of free speech.
“Tina Peters was punished for words that she used to criticize our insecure and illegal voting system,” Case said. “The decision affirms that people are free to speak what they believe in Colorado as well as the rest of the United States of America.”
Case said he would likely ask at resentencing for Peters to receive the approximately 540 days she’s served already. That would allow her to be freed.
Oh, and Democrats can be dumbshits, too.
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who has been considering granting clemency to Peters, praised the court’s decision for rejecting Trump’s pardon but upholding her free speech rights.
“This case has been very challenging and a true test of our resolve as a state to have a fair judicial system, not just for people we agree with but a fair system for Coloradans that we vehemently disagree with,” Polis said in a statement.
Free speech, eh? The fact is that Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk, was convicted on seven of ten charges of engaging in a security breach to advance a false conspiracy theory of election fraud. That’s not free speech. And, of course, Trump will see this as some vindication that the fair election was rigged because nothing matters anymore.
