2026年4月2日，美国东部时间下午12:53 发布 / 美联社
Scott Crabtree/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel/Pool/AP/File
美联社——
科罗拉多州上诉法院周四裁定，一名因2020年总统大选选举欺诈取证阴谋被判有罪的前县书记员需要重新量刑。
蒂娜·彼得斯因2021年软件更新期间私自带入一名外部计算机专家复制所在县的选举计算机系统，被判多项州级罪名成立，目前正在服9年监禁。此后，包含机密投票系统密码的照片和视频被发布到社交媒体和一家保守派网站上。
科罗拉多上诉法院的法官维持了对她的定罪，但表示2024年量刑时，法官不应考虑彼得斯持续宣扬选举欺诈阴谋论的行为。法院将彼得斯的案件发回下级法院，由法官重新作出量刑判决。
呼吁释放彼得斯已成为选举阴谋论运动中的标志性事件。前总统唐纳德·特朗普曾试图赦免彼得斯但未成功，并向科罗拉多州施压要求释放她。
彼得斯在接受马修·巴雷特法官量刑时毫无悔意，坚称自己是为了更大的利益，试图找出她所认为的选举欺诈行为。巴雷特法官严厉斥责她，称其为“骗子”，利用职务之便“兜售蛇油假药”。
彼得斯曾是科罗拉多州西部偏远地区梅萨县的书记员，在这个支持特朗普的共和党票仓被陪审团定罪。
特朗普曾威胁称，除非科罗拉多州释放彼得斯，否则将对该州采取“强硬措施”。今年2月，特朗普称科罗拉多州因拒绝释放她“正付出沉重代价”。
科罗拉多州总检察长菲尔·韦瑟是民主党人，他指责特朗普政府以“报复行动”相威胁，以切断资金和终止联邦项目为手段，逼迫该州释放彼得斯。
上诉法院认定，原判刑罚部分是因彼得斯坚持认为2020年大选存在欺诈而作出的惩罚。
“基于这些理由，我们认定审判法院显然存在错误，至少部分基于彼得斯受保护的言论作出了量刑判决，”法院在周四的裁决中写道。
韦瑟在回应裁决时表示，原判“公平且恰当”。
“无论她的量刑结果如何，蒂娜·彼得斯永远都是一名已定罪的重刑犯，她违背了作为梅萨县书记员的职责，将他人生命置于危险之中，并威胁了我们的民主。任何事情都无法抹去这一污点，”韦瑟在一份声明中说道。
正在竞选州长的民主党人韦瑟指出，法院认定特朗普试图赦免彼得斯的行为“毫无意义”，因为总统的赦免权并不适用于州级罪名。
在彼得斯的州级上诉审理期间，美国司法部介入了她的保释申请。联邦监狱管理局曾试图将彼得斯转移到联邦监狱。两项尝试均告失败后，特朗普于去年12月宣布赦免彼得斯，但科罗拉多州方面表示该赦免不适用于她的州级定罪，因此此次赦免被认为仅具象征意义。
但今年1月，该州民主党州长贾里德·波利斯表示，他正在考虑对彼得斯予以宽大处理，称对于一名初犯、非暴力罪犯而言，她的刑期“非同寻常且过于严厉”。
彼得斯被判定犯有三项试图影响公职人员罪，以及一项共谋实施刑事假冒罪、一级公职行为失当罪、违反职责罪和未遵守国务卿相关要求罪。
彼得斯的律师并未否认，她曾利用一名本地男子的安全证件，谎称雇佣对方，允许“我的枕头”首席执行官迈克·林德尔的一名同伙在2021年年度软件更新期间复制多米尼克投票系统的选举服务器。
但他们辩称，彼得斯只是希望保留选举数据，查明在计票期间是否有外部人员入侵过该系统，并称她并未打算将相关信息公之于众。
Colorado appeals court orders resentencing for former county clerk Tina Peters in election fraud scheme
Published Apr 2, 2026, 12:53 PM ET / Associated Press
Tina Peters listens during her trial in Grand Junction, Colorado, on March 3, 2023.
Scott Crabtree/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel/Pool/AP/File
AP—
A Colorado appeals court ruled Thursday that a former county clerk convicted in a scheme that attempted to find proof of fraud in the 2020 presidential election should be resentenced.
Tina Peters is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted of state crimes for sneaking in an outside computer expert to make a copy of her county’s election computer system during a software update in 2021. A photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were later posted on social media and a conservative website.
Judges on the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction, but said that a judge should not have considered Peters’ continued promotion of election fraud conspiracies when he sentenced her in 2024. The court sent Peters’ case back to a lower court for a judge to issue a new sentence.
Calls for Peters’ release have become a cause celebre in the election conspiracy movement. President Donald Trump has sought unsuccessfully to pardon Peters and pressured Colorado to set her free.
Peters was unapologetic when she was sentenced by Judge Matthew Barrett and insisted that she tried to unearth what she believed was fraud for the greater good. He ripped into her, calling her a “charlatan” who had used her position to “peddle snake oil.”
Peters was the former clerk in Mesa County, in the far western part of Colorado, and convicted by jurors in the Republican stronghold that has supported Trump.
Trump has threatened to take “harsh measures” against Colorado unless the state releases her. In February, Trump said Colorado was “suffering a big price” for refusing to release her.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, has accused the Trump administration of waging a “revenge campaign” by choking off funds and ending federal programs over the state’s refusal to free Peters.
The appeals court found that the sentence punished Peters for maintaining that there was fraud in the 2020 election.
“For these reasons, we conclude that the trial court obviously erred by imposing sentence at least partially based on Peters’ protected speech,” the court said in its ruling Thursday.
Weiser said in response to the ruling that the original sentence had been “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,” Weiser said in a statement.
Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, noted that the court affirmed Trump’s attempt to pardon Peters was “meaningless” since presidential pardons don’t extend to state crimes.
The Justice Department inserted itself into Peters’ bid to be released while her state appeal was considered. The federal Bureau of Prisons tried to get Peters moved to a federal prison. After both efforts failed, Trump in December announced a pardon for Peters that was considered symbolic since Colorado says it doesn’t apply to her state convictions.
But in January, the state’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said he was considering granting clemency for Peters, calling her sentence “unusual and harsh“ for a first-time, non-violent offender.
Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.
Peters’ lawyers didn’t deny that she used the security badge of a local man she pretended to hire to allow the an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to make a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems election computer server during an annual software update in 2021.
But they said she only wanted to preserve election data and find out whether any outside actor had accessed the system while ballots were being counted. They said she didn’t want the information made public.
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