Grand Junction, COLO. (KREX) – President Donald Trump pardoned three high-profile convicts this week, which has some wondering, will Tina Peters ever make the cut?
The former Mesa County clerk, convicted of participating in a security breach linked to the 2020 Biden-Trump presidential election, has been called a “hostage” and an “innocent political prisoner” by President Trump. Still, Peters sits behind bars serving a nine-year prison sentence.
So why hasn’t the president pardoned her? According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), only federal criminal convictions, such as those adjudicated in the United States district courts, may be pardoned by the president.
“The chief executive, at whichever level, has pardon authority for the crimes that occurred in their territorial jurisdiction,” says District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, the prosecutor in Peters’s case. “So specifically for Tina Peters, she was tried and convicted in state court and, therefore, only Governor Polis would have the authority to commute her sentence or to pardon her.”
These limitations have not stopped the president from advocating for Peters, having instructed the DOJ in early May to “take all necessary action to secure her release.” But what action, if any, can legally be taken?
“The Department of Justice has the authority to file a statement of interest in any case,” says Rubinstein. “Just sort of giving the government’s position — the federal government’s position on things.”
So, is there any hope for a Peters pardon?
“We’ve heard threats about withholding federal funding,” Rubinstein speculates. “I know the president has, for example, withheld grant funding to Harvard University…Governor Polis has made it quite clear that he will not be responding to coercion or bribery in any way — that he believes that to be some sort of form of extortion.”
WesternSlopeNow reached out to Governor Jared Polis’s (D) office to find out whether Peters has filed for a pardon in Colorado, but we have yet to hear back.
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