Throughout this period, Trump has continued to post about Peters’ cause on Truth Social, specifically targeting Polis, whom he called “the SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado” on December 3. On New Year’s Eve, Trump wrote on Truth Social: ”Hard to wish [Peters] a Happy New Year, but to the Scumbag Governor and the disgusting “Republican” (RINO!) DA … I wish them only the worst. May they rot in Hell. FREE TINA PETERS!” (Trump has posted about Peters’ cause eight times on Truth Social over the last nine months.)
At the time, Peters’ legal team, led by Peter Ticktin, who attended the New York Military Academy with Trump, were putting in the work. On December 7, Ticktin sent a nine-page letter to Trump outlining his client’s case and seeking a pardon. Four days later, on December 11, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election.” Though Trump has no power to pardon those convicted on state charges, Ticktin claimed it applied to his client.
Peters’s legal team has applied for clemency from the governor. While Polis didn’t initially seem likely to entertain the idea, in recent weeks he has hinted that he is considering commuting her sentence, which he has labeled “harsh.”
“You look at every case on clemency on the merits,” Polis told CBS recently. “You have somebody who is nonviolent, a first-time offender, elderly. On the other hand, does she take full accountability for her crime? We don’t look at this in isolation.”
Polis’ possible change of heart has left many in Colorado baffled. Earlier this month, Griswold, together with a Colorado county clerk and the director of the state’s clerks association, sent Polis a letter urging him not to commute Peters’s sentence.
“I do not believe that giving in to a vengeful president makes the retribution stop,” Griswold tells WIRED. “Trump is a lawless president. He disregards the law, he disregards the Constitution, and when people do not cave, he then starts retribution. I believe giving in leads to more illegal actions and outrageous actions from the president.”
“Donald Trump and I have known each other since we were 15 years old,” Ticktin tells WIRED, adding that he has spoken to the president about the case directly but says Trump’s actions are not about retribution: “By Governor Polis standing up to Donald Trump for something that’s unreasonable, he’s drawing more attention to the state and causing the state to be looked at more, [but] I don’t think that it’s retaliation by Donald Trump.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether Trump is conducting a retribution campaign against Colorado, but instead provided a list of reasons why each action was taken—even including responses to two issues WIRED didn’t raise: childcare funding and disaster relief.
Election clerks around Colorado have already been meeting to discuss Peters’ possible pardon and following an online meeting this month, all but one of the members of the Colorado County Clerks Association agreed to the wording of the letter Griswold sent to Polis.
