Former Colorado clerk will remain in state prison after a federal judge
rejects her bid for freedom
[December 09, 2025]
By COLLEEN SLEVIN
DENVER (AP) — A federal magistrate judge on Monday rejected a bid by a
former Colorado county clerk to be released from prison while she
appeals her state conviction for orchestrating a data breach scheme
driven by false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020
presidential race.
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters filed a federal lawsuit asking that
she be released on bond while her appeal is considered. Attorneys for
the state had argued the case should be thrown out partly because of a
legal doctrine that prevents federal courts from getting involved in
pending state criminal cases.
Federal magistrate judge Scott Varholak ruled Monday that Peters didn’t
make a case that he should get involved in overturning her state
sentence.
Peters' attorney, John Case, said in an emailed statement that they were
disappointed in the ruling. He maintained that Peters is innocent and
that voting machines can't be trusted.
"When Tina is released, and she will be released in time, hopefully
soon, it will mean that we are healing from the atrocities which have
befallen Tina and the people of Colorado," Case wrote.
A message left with the Colorado attorney general's office seeking
comment on the ruling wasn't immediately returned Monday.
Trump and others have called for Peters' release
Peters argued that the magistrate judge should free her because she said
the state judge who sentenced her to nine years behind bars violated her
First Amendment rights. Peters claimed he punished her for making
allegations about election fraud, but prosecutors argued that the U.S.
Supreme Court has allowed judges to consider people’s speech during
sentencings if they deem it relevant.
During Peters’ October 2024 sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett called the
defendant a “charlatan” and said she posed a danger to the community for
spreading lies about voting and undermining the democratic process.
Peters was unapologetic and insisted that everything she did was geared
toward trying to unroot what she believed was fraud. She claimed her
actions were done for the greater good.
Her lawyers argued that Barrett was wrong to call Peters' statements
“lies” and said there was no evidence her speech posed a danger.
President Donald Trump and other supporters, including retired Lt. Gen.
Michael Flynn, the national security adviser during Trump’s first term,
have called for Peters to be released. In August, Trump warned he would
“take harsh measures” if Peters wasn’t freed, saying she was old and
very sick.
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“Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong,
except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election,” Trump posted
Aug. 21 on his Truth Social platform.
Flynn has said Peters, 70, should be moved into federal custody
because she could be a witness into an investigation of the 2020
election.
Colorado clerks say there is no evidence of widespread cheating
in elections
The administration sent a letter to the Colorado prison system in
mid-November asking that Peters be transferred to federal custody.
One her lawyers said he believed the request was made so Peters
could more easily be involved in the investigation into the
election.
There is no evidence of any widespread cheating in Colorado
elections, which have been staunchly defended by county clerks
throughout the state, most of whom are Republican. Peters was
prosecuted by an elected Republican district attorney, and the three
supervisors in her conservative-leaning county also supported the
case and defended the integrity of the state’s elections.
The U.S. Justice Department got involved in Peters’ federal case in
March, saying “reasonable concerns” had been raised about her
prosecution. It also said the DOJ was reviewing whether the
prosecution was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than
toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental
objectives,” a line from an executive order entitled “Ending the
Weaponization of The Federal Government” that Trump signed shortly
after his inauguration.
The state objected to the federal government inserting itself,
saying the statement the department filed in the case appeared to be
a “naked, political attempt” to intimidate the court or Peters’
prosecutors. It unsuccessfully asked for the court to reject it.
Peters’ lawyers pointed to three cases in which federal judges
ordered people convicted of state crimes to be released from prison
while they appealed, including one involving free speech. In that
1977 case, a judge freed the late Native American activist Russell
Means after he was placed back behind bars because he remained
active in the American Indian Movement while free on bond from state
custody. The state court had largely barred him from participating
in the group. The federal judge ruled that was an unconstitutional
limit on his First Amendment rights of speech and association.
Peters challenged her imprisonment under a constitutional provision
known as habeas corpus.
____
Associated Press writer Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado,
contributed to this report.
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