Federal officials to review Tina Peters’ election conspiracy case for “abuses of the criminal justice process”

The U.S. Department of Justice will review Colorado’s prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in a search for “abuses of the criminal justice process,” federal attorneys wrote in a court filing this week.

The filing has no immediate effect on Peters’ conviction, but it shows explicit federal interest in a state criminal case involving one of the most prominent supporters of President Donald Trump’s debunked 2020 election conspiracies. The filing also cites his Inauguration Day executive order aimed at “ending the weaponization of the federal government.”

The Justice Department’s interest — the latest move by the administration to use its power to reward allies who violated the law on the president’s behalf — was met with criticism from Colorado officials. The Republican district attorney who prosecuted Peters rejected any suggestion the case was brought because of politics.

Peters, 69, was sentenced in October to eight and a half years in prison and six months in jail. She was convicted in state court of committing several felonies related to unauthorized access to state voting machines. She was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give a man affiliated with MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent election denier, access to the Mesa County election system in an unsuccessful search for voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

She has since asked the federal courts to review the legality of her incarceration and claims that her constitutional rights are being violated. In the petition, she says her physical, mental and cognitive health have deteriorated.

Peters’ federal filing does not involve the merits of her state conviction but “challenges the refusal” by state courts to grant her bail while she goes through state appeals.

In the Department of Justice’s statement of interest, filed Monday in that federal court case, Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth said “reasonable concerns” were raised about Peters’ case, including the length of her sentence, alleged First Amendment violations and the denial of bail pending appeal.

Peters’ case is one of many that will be reviewed, according to the filing, and officials will evaluate if her case was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Trump can’t pardon Peters because she was convicted on state charges. He has previously issued blanket pardons to more than 1,500 people convicted of federal crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that sought to disrupt certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.

Reactions from DA, Peters’ attorney

Daniel Rubinstein, the Mesa County district attorney who prosecuted Peters — and a fellow Republican — emphasized that Peters was tried and convicted in a heavily Republican county. Trump won the county in 2024 with 61% of the vote, and Republicans outnumber Democrats there nearly 3-to-1.

“Nothing about the prosecution of Ms. Peters was politically motivated,” Rubinstein said in a statement Tuesday. “In one of the most conservative jurisdictions in Colorado, the same voters who elected Ms. Peters, also elected the Republican District Attorney who handled the prosecution, and the all-Republican Board of County Commissioners who unanimously requested the prosecution of Ms. Peters on behalf of the citizens she victimized.

“Ms. Peters was indicted by a grand jury of her peers, and convicted at trial by the jury of her peers that she selected.”

The office of Colorado Attorney Phil Weiser, a Democrat, declined to comment Tuesday because the federal case is active.

Peters’ attorney, John Case, was heartened by the news, saying: “Tina was targeted because she executed her duty under federal law to preserve election data that the Secretary of State deleted from every other Colorado county. We welcome the federal investigation.”

Doug Spencer, a law professor at the University of Colorado, said in an interview that the Department of Justice intervening in a federal case wasn’t unusual on its own, but the explicitly political nature was “very out of the ordinary.” The DOJ’s filing doesn’t appear aimed at overturning Peters’ case on legal grounds, he said, but will force courts to take her case more seriously than they may on its own merits.

The filing also gets Peters back in the news — and shows the federal government will back people who support Trump, Spencer said.

“There’s no legal teeth, there’s not even any legal substance,” Spencer said of the DOJ’s filing. “It’s a press release or a public relations move masquerading as a legal document.”

“You abused your position,” judge said

A Colorado jury found Peters guilty in August on three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state’s requirements, according to court records.

She was found not guilty of additional charges of identity theft, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and criminal impersonation.

At her sentencing hearing in October, District Judge Matthew Barrett sparred with Peters over her continuing to push discredited claims about rigged voting machines. He told her she never took her job seriously.

“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”

Barrett and Grand Junction courthouse staff received multiple threats that were vetted by law enforcement while extra security was provided.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, initially launched an investigation into Peters’ conduct in August 2021 and sued to strip the county clerk of election oversight.

“The Trump Department of Justice’s decision to review Tina Peters’ conviction for attempting to compromise her own election equipment shows that the Trump administration is trying to re-write history and normalize fake election conspiracies,” Griswold said in a statement Tuesday. “Shame on them for weaponizing the legal system to push their election lies.”

Lawrence Norden, an election security expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the case against Peters was “an open and shut case of official misconduct.”

“The statements from the Department of Justice, coming after the administration has dismantled a number of federal guardrails to protect the integrity of our elections, sends a terrible message to election officials and the broader community about where the administration stands on election security,” Norden said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Originally Published: March 4, 2025 at 7:57 AM MST