After Colorado Governor Jared Polis' limited commutation of the nine-year sentence for former Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters, he has been blasted nonstop by Democrats, left-leaning journalists, and legacy media outlets. Peters became a lightning rod for election integrity advocates and judicial reformists over her 2024 conviction for election interference and attempting to influence a public official when she exposed voting information from a Dominion machine. Polis considered her nine-year sentence to be unusually punitive, particularly in light of Sonja Jaquez Lewis, a former Democrat state senator, whose 2024 criminal indictment was in the same category as Peters'.
Jaquez Lewis' indictment included four felonies: making three false statements to four public officials. Not only were these charges combined from three false statements to one, but Jaquez Lewis was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, 150 hours of community service, and a fine.
Not exactly justice equally applied. Polis outlined this reasoning in Peters' letter of clemency.
However, this is an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.
I agree with the principle highlighted by the Colorado Court of Appeals in your case that, “...the First Amendment generally prohibits punishing someone for their protected speech. ‘[A] court may not punish an individual by imposing a heavier sentence for the exercise of [F]irst [A]mendment rights. . . . A sentence based to any degree on activity or beliefs protected by the [F]irst [A]mendment is constitutionally invalid.’”
Further I agree, in this case, “[T]he trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing. Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud.
Indeed, under these circumstances, just as her purported beliefs underlying her motive for her actions were not relevant to her defense, the trial court should not have considered those beliefs relevant when imposing sentence.”
Polis did a video explaining how and why he made his choice to cut Peters' sentence in half from almost nine years to four-and-a-half. In his interviews with legacy media, Polis continued to emphasize this point, despite legacy media's obsession with making it about President Donald Trump and 2020 election denialism.
When Polis appeared on CNN, host Kaitlan Collins tried to steer him in that direction to further give credence to this tired narrative. Surprisingly, Polis did not play ball.
POLIS: Thousands of people, of course, have weighed in, people called my office, some incorrectly thought she didn't commit a crime, as the president did, thought she should be pardoned — we're going to fight the president's illegal pardon in court. Some like me thought she was guilty, should have had a slightly lower sentence. Others wanted her to stay there for a long time and fundamentally misunderstood the crime. Thought it had something to do with the 2020 election or election conspiracy around Trump and Biden, when the crime had zero to do with that.
COLLINS: You don't think its.. its.. had Trump not disputed the 2020 election, had Mike Lindell not become this famous figure on TV disputing the election results in 2020, that what happened in 2021 in Mesa County would have happened?
POLIS: Well, to be clear: this was the clerk that certified the 2020 election results. There was not an issue there. There were some issues around her competency [COLLINS interrupts] This was a municipal election —
COLLINS: I'm just asking, if you don't think that what happened in 2020... you don't think this would have happened? You just think that those are totally separate? That this would have occurred even if the president, if that never happened in 2020 with a major election dispute, pressure on the Vice President, and on state election officials, from Georgia to Colorado to wherever, on that. You don't think that would have happened?
POLIS: You'd have to have her on to talk about her motivation. Do I think that she was egged on or encouraged in her illegal acts by people like Mike Lindell, or perhaps, even, the President of the United States, it's certainly conjecture, but it's certainly possible. I don't know how she came to hold her beliefs. I certainly believe that there are incorrect, dangerous beliefs that are held in certain circles in our country.
Ultimately it's a matter of free speech until you cross the line and violate the law, which she did. And that's why she committed the crime and she should do the crime with a sentence that's tough and fair. That's why she'll... her sentence has been adjusted to four-and-a-half years, which is a very severe sentence for what she did. When again, another public official in Colorado got probation only for one of these acts of felony and three other felonies.
WATCH:
Polis debunked several talking points on the Left and the Right:
- The 2021 election, in which Peters committed her crimes, was a municipal one, which means she did not violate federal laws and therefore could not receive a pardon from the President of the United States.
- The felonies Peters was convicted of had "zero" to do with the 2020 election and all the mess that went along with it.
- Peters' original sentence should not have been based on her beliefs, but on her actions.
This video from Peters' 2024 sentencing hearing gives credence to Polis' and her attorneys' assessment that Peters' free speech rights had been violated. Noteworthy in Judge Matthew Barrett's rant while sentencing Peters are these baseless accusations:
Yes, you are a charlatan. And you cannot help but lie as easy it is as you to breathe.
And this is what makes Ms. Peters such a danger to our community. It's the position she held that has provided her the pulpit from which she can preach these lies. The undermining of our democratic process. The undermining of the belief and confidence in our election systems. It's not about questioning it, no one says you can't question, you can't ask, it's completely different. And if you don't understand, nothing I can say or do here today that will change your mind. So, the damage that is caused and continue to be caused, is just as bad, if not worse, than the physical violence that this court sees on an all too regular basis. And it's particularly damaging when those words comes from someone who holds a position of influence like you.
WATCH:
More dangerous than physical violence? Totally on brand with the Left's attacks on free speech and their insistence that words are violence. Except this time it is spouted from the mouth of an activist judge, who had the power to punish Peters for those words and thoughts that he just didn't like. Barrett's insistence that Peters' role as an election official with influence made her words more damaging is quite laughable. By this standard, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) should be on trial. In 2024, Griswold not only tried to remove former President Donald Trump completely from the 2024 presidential ballot, but even after Trump was duly elected and sworn in, Griswold continued to spout election denialism and conspiracy theories about Trump being a danger to democracy.
It was none other than Griswold whom Kaitlan Collins and CNN brought on to debunk Polis' statements, claiming that granting Peters clemency is the "wrong message to send in a time when our democracy is in crisis."
WATCH:
CNN brings on CO Secretary of State Jena Griswold to debunk Jared Polis’ claim that Tina Peters’ conviction had nothing to do with the 2020 election:
“Her actions has everything to do with the 2020 election. The governor is correct that she facilitated the compromising of voting equipment during 2021. But make no mistake, the intent of her work was to try to prove trump's big lie.”
It is Griswold who is the one in crisis. Griswold is on the 2026 ballot to be the next attorney general. However, her partisan and sloppy work as secretary of state, coupled with her role in Peters' conviction and sentencing, keeps coming to the forefront and ruining her election chances. Here is Griswold trying to do a song and dance denial after she exposed voting machine passwords and didn't disclose it. A leaked audio recording confirms the cover-up, which would have continued had the Colorado GOP not gotten wind of it.
WARNING: Strong Language in the X thread and audio.
WATCH:
And here it is:
An audio recording has been obtained of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold telling local election officials they weren’t informed she leaked Dominion voting machine passwords online because she wanted to avoid causing a “media storm.”
“Griswold told me that day that the bitch hadn’t decided whether the public was ever going to be told.”
A Democrat election official said her reason was “BULLSHIT” and that he was “PISSED OFF” about the leak.
In other words, it wasn’t accidental. It was a deliberate attempt, one month before the 2024 presidential election, to overthrow the U.S. government.
📝the b**ch belongs in prison.
Mark this down: Once all this shakes out, Gov. Jared Polis will be the hero of this saga, and Griswold will be the villain. She knows this full well, which is why she's running interference.
Jared Polis has granted a limited commutation to Tina Peters
That is the very LEAST that should be done.
Tina exposed a crime, she did not commit a crime.
I find it hard to believe that Polis doesn't know the truth by now, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I have no problem showing him the truth; as one developer to another, when he sees it for himself, he will know that Tina is a hero and not a criminal.
As far as the other letter: Someone should let our idiot SoS that we DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY!
We have a Constitutional Republic.
And every lie she has told about Tina will be exposed, and little mis jena will not escape consequences for those lies.
By granting Peters a limited commutation, Polis effectively distanced himself from Griswold and the other Democrats' actions.
Making him smarter than them by a long shot.