Trump focuses on election fraud. Yet he worked to free a former official convicted in an election interference case.

While Colorado was in shock one of the worst forest fires in his story, President Trump seemed to focus on the MAGA warrior Tina Peters.

Peters was a senior election official who used her position to pursue Mr. Trump’s baseless claim that rigged voting machines cost him the 2020 election. She was sentenced to nearly nine years behind bars, and Mr. Trump was determined to see her released by Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

The way Mr. Trump demanded Peters’ freedom, critics say, raises questions about how far he will go to advance his agenda — and what he will do to punish those who get in his way. The president now faces a lawsuit filed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office, which helped convict Peters of compromising voting machines.

Why this trial? Weiser said Mr. Trump “is using intimidation, using threats to take away our sovereignty. (The) president can’t tell us what to do. It’s up to us.”

Peter’s crimes

The official who oversees elections in Colorado is Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat. She alleges Peters helped an unauthorized person pose as a county employee, gave him access to secure voting equipment and allowed him to copy proprietary software.

“Tina Peters ordered her video surveillance cameras turned off, then took images of voting equipment and shared them with a network of election deniers,” Griswold said.

Griswold discovered the flaw when copies of the data surfaced at a conference focused on voter fraud allegations. Peters spoke at the event.

Peters was charged with obstruction for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the voting machine violation. She was indicted a month later on 10 counts, further elevating her standing among election skeptics.

She was all smiles as she walked into court in 2024. After a two-week trial, a jury found her guilty of the state charges: three misdemeanors and four felonies.

Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced Peters to nearly nine years in prison.

“You are not a hero. You have abused your position and you are a charlatan,” Barrett said in court. “I have no doubt you would do it again if you could. You are as provocative a defendant as this court has ever seen.”

Did the White House punish Colorado for imprisoning Peters?

Weiser, a Democrat, said it was clear the president decided to punish Colorado because he didn’t like Peters being convicted and sentenced in that state.

Last year, as a wildfire ravaged Colorado, the president promised “tough measures” if Peters was not released.

“And then the consequences started to follow,” Weiser said.

Federal wildfire aid has been denied — which the White House says has nothing to do with Peters.

“There is no politicization in the president’s decisions regarding disaster relief,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.

But wildfire relief hasn’t been the only area where the state has been hit. The Trump administration threatened to cut off food aid to the state’s neediest families, canceled $109 million in transportation funding and moved to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. The Trump administration has described these actions as a series of decisions by independent agencies.

“The threats were not hidden, they were not subtle, they were visible and we are fighting back,” said Weiser, who is suing the president, alleging a campaign of retaliation.

Mr. Trump called Peters “a hostage held in a Colorado prison by Democrats for political reasons.” He also called her a patriot.

“I feel like we’re in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ When someone breaks the law, they’re not a patriot,” Weiser said. “When someone seeks to undermine the integrity of our elections by lying, that is not a patriotic act. It undermines the core, the foundation of a democratic republic.”

The president granted Peters a pardonbut this had no legal effect since she was convicted of state, not federal, charges. He continued to praise Peters while ripping into Colorado lawmakers, calling Polis a “weak, pathetic man” and calling him a “sleazy governor.”

Peters’ sentence commuted

In May, after Peters had served less than two years, Polis commuted his sentence.

“Look, she should have served a year, two years, three years,” Polis told 60 Minutes. “When she turned almost nine, I was shocked.”

The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that it was “furious” and “disgusted” by the commutation. Colorado County Clerks Association Director Matt Crane, a Republican, said it was a “total betrayal of the voting community” in the state.

“I mean, as simple as it sounds, (Polis) took a knee to President Trump,” Crane said.

Polis insists that was not the case.

“It would have been a lot easier to do if the president had never mentioned it,” Polis said. “This was an elderly, non-violent, first-time offender who received a longer sentence than she should have.”

Critics question the governor’s timing. The state court system was already reconsidering Peters’ sentence when Polis intervened.

“There is no timetable for commutations and pardons. It’s every time I decide,” Polis said. “But when it’s invented, it’s invented. There’s no reason to delay.”

Polis also shared his hopes for Peters.

“I hope she understands that what she did was wrong,” he said. “She wishes, presumably, that she had done it legally rather than illegally.”

Tina Peters: released from behind bars and without excuse

Peters returned to the election denial circuit in the months that followed his release from prison. She attended the Fraud Fighter Summit in Las Vegas, appeared on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ streaming show and met Mr. Trump at the White House.

She made no apologies when 60 Minutes met with her in August, saying the ends justify the means.

“At the end of the day, can people trust these machines? Can they really trust these machines? My answer is no,” Peters said.

There were more than 60 lawsuits filed alleging voter fraud during the 2020 election; they were either fired or removed. Federal, state and local investigators – among them Republicans – examined these allegations. None of them found evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

“You know, I’m not going to debate what’s going on in this regard across the country. All I know is that I was the election official charged with preserving election records. And those election records were wiped from the system,” Peters said.

The “system wiped” records were erased as part of a routine system update across Colorado. All election results were preserved, according to Crane.

“Any records that were required to be retained by federal and state laws, his staff had already backed up,” Crane said.

When asked why she turned off the security cameras, Peters told 60 Minutes that “it wasn’t against the law.”

“Are you asking me if I broke the law? They said I broke the law,” she said.

According to Peters, it doesn’t matter that she was prosecuted by a Republican prosecutor in a Republican county. She is convinced that his conviction was unfair.

“Because I believe these machines can be hacked,” she said.

Peters did not give a clear answer when asked if she now plans to run for office.

“I am a woman of faith. I believe that whatever God brings you, he will help you achieve it,” she said. “And I’m willing to do whatever needs to be done to save this country.”

Impact in Colorado

Federal funds that had been delayed are again flowing to Colorado: $47 million for water projects has been unfrozen, and last month the Trump administration approved federal wildfire aid for the state.

But Griswold and Crane worry that Peters’ actions have damaged voters’ trust in election workers and the election system. His actions and the president’s support for Peters fueled distrust of election workers, making them targets of threats and intimidation, according to Crane.

“As election officials, we don’t have the kind of megaphone that the president of the United States has,” Crane said. “He has far more ability to spread disinformation and lies about our election process than we have to spread the truth about what’s really happening.”