彼得斯是科罗拉多州梅萨县的一名前选举职员，她于2024年8月因七项指控（包括四项重罪）被定罪，涉及2021年该县投票系统的安全漏洞。她当时试图寻找证据支持特朗普声称其输给前总统乔·拜登是由于选民舞弊的说法。此后，她被判处九年监禁。
自特朗普去年重返白宫以来，他一直向民主党州长贾里德·波利斯施压，要求释放70岁的彼得斯。
特朗普周三在Truth Social平台上写道：”释放蒂娜·彼得斯，这位73岁身患癌症的女性，被科罗拉多州的一名民主党州长贾里德·波利斯和一个腐败的政治机器判处九年徒刑，罪名是揭露民主党在2020年总统选举中的舞弊行为。再次释放蒂娜！”
波利斯承认彼得斯的判决”过于严厉”，因为她没有任何前科。
州长最近在社交媒体上指出，彼得斯被判处九年监禁，而一名因同样罪行被定罪的前州议员仅被判处缓刑和社区服务。
波利斯在X平台上写道：”科罗拉多州和美国的正义需要得到平等的执行，你永远不知道什么时候可能需要依靠法治。这就是我在考虑这类存在量刑差异的案件时的背景。”
但波利斯表示，他是否给予特赦将取决于彼得斯是否对自己的行为表示悔恨——官员们表示她并未这样做。
他此前在接受KUSA-TV采访时表示：”任何成功的特赦申请都需要她表现出适当的悔悟和道歉。这才是我会关注的重点。”
科罗拉多州总检察长菲尔·韦塞尔（其办公室协助起诉彼得斯）强调，彼得斯并未表现出对自己行为的任何悔意。
韦塞尔是一位希望接替任期受限的波利斯的民主党人，他表示：”特赦应基于悔悟、改造和减轻情节，而非政治影响力、偏袒或报复。”
同样希望取代波利斯担任州长的科罗拉多州民主党参议员迈克尔·贝内特也表示，彼得斯不应获得赦免或减刑。
他说：”唐纳德·特朗普可能在寻求报复科罗拉多州，但屈服于他的政治压力不会让我们的州变得更强大或更安全。”
特朗普在社交媒体上多次为彼得斯辩护，并于去年宣布给予她”完全赦免”，尽管这一举措不适用于州一级的定罪，因为该权力属于州长。
本周早些时候，联邦法官裁定，特朗普政府曾威胁要扣留科罗拉多州的资金，这被描述为对该州不愿赦免彼得斯的潜在报复。这一裁定在特朗普象征性宣布赦免后不久作出。
美国地区法院法官R.布鲁克·杰克逊写道，美国农业部在12月威胁扣留数百万美元联邦资金用于科罗拉多州的SNAP项目，违反了美国宪法的《支出条款》。
法官写道：”这一更大的背景揭示了真相；这个试点项目似乎只是为了惩罚，除此之外别无他用。”
本周还有一项诉讼称，特朗普政府针对一个气候和天气研究实验室进行报复，因为科罗拉多州官员监禁了彼得斯。
福克斯新闻的安德斯·哈格斯特伦对本文有贡献。
President Donald Trump on Wednesday renewed his calls to release Tina Peters, a pro-Trump election worker who was convicted for her role in a scheme aimed at finding evidence of election fraud in the president’s 2020 election loss.
Peters, a former election clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, is serving a nine-year prison sentence following her August 2024 conviction on seven charges, including four felonies, related to a 2021 security breach of the county’s voting systems as she sought evidence to support Trump’s claims that his loss to former President Joe Biden was due to voter fraud.
Trump has been pressuring Democrat Gov. Jared Polis to release Peters, 70, since he returned to the White House last year.
“Free Tina Peters, a 73-year-old woman with cancer, given a nine-year death sentence in a Colorado prison by a Democrat governor, Jared Polis, and a corrupt political machine, for exposing fraud by the Democrats during the 2020 presidential election,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “Again, free Tina!”
Polis has acknowledged that Peters’ sentence was “harsh,” given that she had no prior criminal record.
The governor recently noted on social media that Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison, while a former state lawmaker convicted of the same crime was sentenced only to probation and community service.
“Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law. This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities,” Polis wrote on X.
But Polis said his decision about granting clemency would be influenced by whether Peters has expressed remorse for her actions — something officials say she has not done.
“What she would have to show in any successful clemency application would be appropriate contrition, apology. That’s the kind of thing I would be looking for,” he previously told KUSA-TV.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office helped prosecute Peters, has emphasized that she has not demonstrated any remorse for her actions.
“Clemency should be based on remorse, rehabilitation, and extenuating circumstances — not on political influence, favor, or retribution,” said Weiser, a Democrat running to succeed the term-limited Polis.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who is also hoping to replace Polis as governor, similarly said Peters should not receive a pardon or have her sentence commuted.
“Donald Trump may be seeking revenge on Colorado, but surrendering to his political pressure will not make our state stronger or safer,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly defended Peters on social media and announced last year he was granting her a “full pardon,” though such a move would not apply to a state conviction, as that authority rests with the governor.
Earlier this week, a federal judge found that the Trump administration had threatened to withhold funding from Colorado, describing it as potential retribution for the state’s reluctance to pardon Peters. The finding came shortly after Trump’s symbolic pardon announcement.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s threat in December to withhold millions of dollars in federal funding to Colorado’s SNAP program violated the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“This larger context gives the game away; the pilot project seems to be about punishment and nothing more,” the judge wrote.
A lawsuit also claimed this week that the Trump administration targeted a climate and weather research lab as retribution against Colorado officials for imprisoning Peters.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.