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Tina Peters: 5 things on election denier from Colorado freed from jail after sentence commuted
In May, Tina Peters' nine-year sentence was reduced to 4 and a half by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Peters spent around a year and eight months behind bars.
Tina Peters, an election denier, was released from a Colorado prison on Monday, according to prison officials. This comes weeks after the state's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, approved a commutation that reduced her sentence by half.
Peters was serving a nine-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2024 on multiple charges concerning a breach of election equipment in Mesa County, Colorado. Prosecutors argued that she unlawfully facilitated access to secure voting-system data. However, Peters and her supporters maintained that she was attempting to expose vulnerabilities in election systems.
In May, her nine-year sentence was reduced to 4 ½ years by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. In the end, Peters spent around a year and eight months behind bars, partly because of Colorado's parole laws.
Read move: Tina Peters' first reaction to commuted sentence: 'I made mistakes'
5 things about Tina Peters, her family and the case
1. Tina Peters is a former Mesa County election official. Peters served as the elected clerk and recorder of Mesa County, Colorado, overseeing local elections from 2019 to 2023. As the election official, she oversaw voter registration, elections, and the management of voting systems within her authority.
In that capacity, in 2021, Peters copied a hard drive of photos of the election software, which went viral and were discussed by Peters and others at a symposium in South Dakota organized by conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell.
Prosecutors claimed that the 70-year-old gave an expert connected to the chief executive of MyPillow access to a Dominion Voting Systems election computer by using someone else's security badge.
2. Tina Peters' conviction. On August 12, 2024, the former elections clerk was found guilty of first-degree official misconduct, duty violation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and three charges of attempting to influence a public servant.
Peters, who is a republican, served 20 months at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, which is about 18% of the nine-year sentence she was first given on October 3, 2024.
3. Peters' sentence and the Donald Trump link. Trump supported Peters' case, putting a lot of pressure on Governor Polis via social media posts and threatening to demolish federal sites in Colorado if the commutation didn't happen.
Amid the pressure, on May 15, Gov. Polis shortened Peters' sentence, saying that although her actions were serious, her nine-year prison sentence was "extremely unusual and lengthy" for a first-time non-violent criminal.
Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state, denounced the release, saying it would "embolden the election denier movement." She pointed out that Peters had persisted in disseminating election lies following the announcement of mercy.
Read more: Who is Tina Peters and what did she do?
4. Tina Peters' family. Before her incarceration, Peters lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she eventually became Mesa County clerk.
According to a very public divorce case report, Tina and her former, now deceased husband, Thomas Peters, had two children: a daughter, Cayce Peters, and a late son, Remington J. Peters. The couple later divorced, and disputes involving family property became the subject of local legal proceedings and media coverage.
Remington, 27, passed away in line of duty as a Colorado Navy SEAL during a parachute accident performing at an air show in New York City.
Her family story has frequently surfaced in public discussions of her legal battles, particularly because of the loss of her son.
5. Tina Peters' release. Peters was released on Monday. A few hours later, she spoke about the challenges of serving time in prison on Steve Bannon's podcast, WarRoom.
She said, “It's been quite the ordeal, but I really want to thank God for his faithfulness and getting me through it.”
She also stated on the podcast that she would try her hardest to uphold election integrity through legal means. She further continued to promote false theories about voting machines that have previously been debunked by election audits, lawsuits, and hand recounts.
She said, “I know that the Democrats are going to cheat and no one's really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for. And that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped.”
