An appeals court upheld former Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters’s conviction, but ordered her resentencing.
Peters was convicted in 2024 on state charges for her role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Her imprisonment became a cause celebre for many on the Right, and hopes were high for her appeal, but on Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction. However, the jury decided that she should be resentenced, as her sentencing was “based in part on improper consideration of her exercise of her right to free speech.”
The jury ruled in favor of her conviction after deciding President Donald Trump didn’t have the power to pardon her, as her offense was under a state law.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) expressed some satisfaction with the ruling, though he argued her sentence was “fair and appropriate.”
“Whatever happens with her sentence, Tina Peters will always be a convicted felon who violated her duty as Mesa County clerk, put other lives at risk, and threatened our democracy. Nothing will remove that stain,” he said.
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) expressed openness to granting Peters clemency last month after significant pressure from President Donald Trump. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO), who is running for Polis’s position, once again condemned Peters after the ruling.
“Tina Peters is a felon who tampered with election machines, sowed distrust with our system, and undermined our democracy. She was convicted by a jury of her peers, and no matter the resentence, we will never let her near our election systems again,” he said in a post on X.
TRUMP GRANTS ‘FULL PARDON’ TO TINA PETERS AFTER 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE CONVICTION
The president has raged over Peters’s conviction and sentencing on Truth Social, even granting her a “full Pardon” last December, which courts ruled he couldn’t give.
“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump wrote in his December 2025 symbolic pardon on Truth Social. “Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections. Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”
