Tina Peters, a former county clerk and recorder, was convicted of four felonies for allowing an unauthorized computer expert to access Mesa County election software. The expert was later revealed to be connected to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Peters received a nine-year prison sentence but is expected to be freed on June 1 after Gov. Jared Polis commuted the term. Polis had been considering the commutation for some time, including waiting to see how an appeals court would rule. A panel of three judges appointed by Donald Trump during his first term found the sentence overly severe and said the trial judge acted improperly. The commutation is criticized as setting a precedent and signaling limited consequences for election officials who abuse power to support election denialism.
"Tina Peters, one of the few election deniers to actually face consequences for criminal conduct related to the 2020 election, will be a free woman in less than two weeks' time. Rather than receiving leniency from a fellow election-denying MAGA leader, Peters' freedom will be thanks to a Democratic politician who should know better, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Last week, Polis tried to quietly announce that he had commuted her nine-year prison sentence, but the news immediately caught fire."
"Peters is the former county clerk and recorder of Mesa County, a bright-red pocket of Colorado, and in 2024 she was convicted of four felonies after a Colorado jury found her guilty of allowing an unauthorized computer expert-who turned out to be an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell -to gain access to her county's election software. She was sentenced to nine years in prison, but after Polis' commutation, Peters is expected to be released on June 1, having served less than two years behind bars for her crimes."
"Polis had been weighing whether to commute Peters' sentence for some time now, and was waiting to see how an appeals court would handle the case. When a panel of three judges, each appointed to the bench by Trump during his first term, ruled in April that Peters' sentence was overly severe and that the 2024 trial court judge had improper"
#election-denialism #criminal-convictions #sentence-commutation #colorado-politics #2020-election-interference
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