Latest Breaking News

highplainsdem

(59,635 posts) Thu Dec 11, 2025, 09:38 PM Dec 11

Trump grants 'pardon' to Tina Peters that doesn't free her from prison

Source: USA Today

President Donald Trump issued what amounts to a symbolic "pardon" of Tina Peters, a former Republican county clerk in Colorado imprisoned for letting someone access data from a secure voting system in an effort to prove baseless 2020 election denial conspiracies.

Trump announced the "pardon" of Peters in a Dec. 11 post on X. However, Peters ‒ who remains the only Trump ally in prison for crimes related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election ‒ was convicted on state charges. Trump's pardon power as president only extends to federal charges, meaning Peters will remain in prison and her conviction stands.

"Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the 'crime' of demanding Honest Elections. Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!"

Trump's statement came after a federal magistrate judge on Dec. 8 rejected a bid by the 69-year-old Peters to be released from prison as she appeals her 2024 state conviction.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/11/donald-trump-symbolic-pardon-tina-peters-colordo/87724735007/

18 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Trump grants 'pardon' to Tina Peters that doesn't free her from prison (Original Post) highplainsdem Dec 11 OP

Try this Pisswig dweller Dec 11 #1

He so wants to be King. surfered Dec 11 #2

- Lemon Lyman Dec 11 #9

Thats part of why he demanded the Republicans self castrate themselves and kneel before him with the remains as a gift.. cstanleytech Dec 12 #17

The man is a fool Bayard Dec 11 #3

Delusional proclamation odins folly Dec 11 #5

Fodder for his shrinking base of yahoos Brother Buzz Dec 11 #8

Lol SSJVegeta Dec 11 #4

No one has been more "relentless" than TSF in targeting opponents. He should know how the systems works by now Deuxcents Dec 11 #6

None of the worthless DC media will ask him "do you not understand that a federal RockRaven Dec 11 #7

More gold paint-- worthless. Drum Dec 11 #10

So,... LudwigPastorius Dec 11 #11

Trump knows exactly what he's doing. J_William_Ryan Dec 12 #12

I think he is trying to set up a situation he can take to the Supreme Court ... SomewhereInTheMiddle Dec 12 #14

He can put that on the never gonna happen list PortTack Dec 12 #15

He'll be calling her a "political prisoner" at his Figarosmom Dec 12 #13

Writing the proverbial check without assets. no_hypocrisy Dec 12 #16

MaddowBlog-Trump's pardon for Colorado's Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw LetMyPeopleVote Dec 12 #18

dweller

(27,776 posts)

1. Try this Pisswig

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 09:41 PM

Dec 11

Take her place … she goes free and you finish her sentence
otherwise , STFU

✌🏻

surfered

(11,106 posts)

2. He so wants to be King.

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 09:44 PM

Dec 11

Lemon Lyman

(1,555 posts)

9. -

Reply to surfered (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:16 PM

Dec 11

GUARANTEE you he thought that's what being president was when he first ran 10 years ago. He thought the president got to do whatever he wanted.

cstanleytech

(28,167 posts)

17. Thats part of why he demanded the Republicans self castrate themselves and kneel before him with the remains as a gift..

Reply to surfered (Reply #2)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 05:39 AM

Dec 12

He accepted their gifts of course but only after demanding they pay to gold dip them and now their hanging on the Whitehouse Christmas tree, though Mike Johnson's I heard he had made into earrings for Melania as they were to small for the tree.

Bayard

(28,358 posts)

3. The man is a fool

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 09:47 PM

Dec 11

Why would he waste his time on this? We'll know from now on to charge his henchmen/henchwomen with state crimes, so he can't bust them out.

odins folly

(536 posts)

5. Delusional proclamation

Reply to Bayard (Reply #3)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:02 PM

Dec 11

He doesn’t know reality from his dementia….

Brother Buzz

(39,512 posts)

8. Fodder for his shrinking base of yahoos

Reply to Bayard (Reply #3)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:07 PM

Dec 11

SSJVegeta

(2,240 posts)

4. Lol

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 09:54 PM

Dec 11

Deuxcents

(25,349 posts)

6. No one has been more "relentless" than TSF in targeting opponents. He should know how the systems works by now

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:03 PM

Dec 11

RockRaven

(18,623 posts)

7. None of the worthless DC media will ask him "do you not understand that a federal

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:05 PM

Dec 11

pardon does not touch state crimes?"

Drum

(10,556 posts)

10. More gold paint-- worthless.

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:46 PM

Dec 11

LudwigPastorius

(14,047 posts)

11. So,...

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 10:47 PM

Dec 11

not only does he NOT know that he can't pardon her, nobody who works for him has the balls to tell him that.

Future generations will marvel that this decrepit degenerate actually occupied the White House...twice.

J_William_Ryan

(3,280 posts)

12. Trump knows exactly what he's doing.

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 12:05 AM

Dec 12

Trump continues his attack on democracy and democratic norms.

SomewhereInTheMiddle

(607 posts)

14. I think he is trying to set up a situation he can take to the Supreme Court ...

Reply to J_William_Ryan (Reply #12)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 01:07 AM

Dec 12

He issues the pardon. Colorado ignores it. He takes the state to court arguing federal power trumps state power and his selected six ignore the Constitution, the law, and all precedence and backs him up, greatly expanding presidential power.

For the Old Man it is a win-win.

I hope it does not happen, but this is the world we live in.

PortTack

(35,810 posts)

15. He can put that on the never gonna happen list

Reply to SomewhereInTheMiddle (Reply #14)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 01:21 AM

Dec 12

Figarosmom

(9,642 posts)

13. He'll be calling her a "political prisoner" at his

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 12:15 AM

Dec 12

Rallies and threaten and complain until they release her. Colorado will hold firm I think. But he will be putting out the word to his minions.

no_hypocrisy

(54,126 posts)

16. Writing the proverbial check without assets.

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 05:32 AM

Dec 12

LetMyPeopleVote

(174,290 posts)

18. MaddowBlog-Trump's pardon for Colorado's Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw

Reply to highplainsdem (Original post)

Fri Dec 12, 2025, 04:10 PM

Dec 12

Presidents can’t pardon individuals convicted of state crimes. Whether Trump understands that isn’t entirely clear.

Trumpâ€™s pardon for Coloradoâ€™s Tina Peters suffers from one fatal flaw: she was convicted under state law. Trump can't pardon state crimes.

How stupid is Donny Trump? www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Cheeky Tart (@svenable.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T16:32:51.170Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-pardon-tina-peters-colorado

Over the course of the past year, Donald Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to help Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who’s currently in prison for election crimes. The one step the president had not taken was to issue a pardon, since that wouldn’t make any sense.

Late Thursday, he did it anyway. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

.....In August, Trump threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” unless the state agreed to release Peters, who he claimed had been “tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.” More recently, Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted the Colorado Department of Corrections, seeking to transfer Peters from a state prison to federal custody, but that didn’t work, either.

Left with no other options, the president announced a pardon for Peters.

Except that won’t work, either. Peters faced state prosecution over state crimes. She was tried and convicted in state court. She was sentenced by a state judge and sent to a state prison.

A federal pardon might make Trump feel better, but it’s also utterly irrelevant. As Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser explained in a written statement, “One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government. The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”

The question, however, is whether Trump knows this.

It’s possible that the president, desperate to assist an ally he’s powerless to help, issued the pardon as a symbolic gesture, grudgingly aware of the fact that it will change nothing. What’s unclear, however, is whether Trump intended this to have some force of law as Peters’ attorney continues to work to get his client out of prison. Watch this space.

Reply to this discussion