President Donald Trump touched on the nine-year prison sentence of former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters again this month, telling Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein on Wednesday to “rot in Hell” for incarcerating the 2020 election denier.
The fiery statement came weeks after Trump granted a “full pardon” to Peters. The presidential pardon was symbolic because her conviction rested on state charges, not federal.
In 2024, the former Mesa County election clerk was sentenced for tampering with voting equipment to prove unsubstantiated voter fraud claims in 2020. Trump said she was unfairly imprisoned.
“God Bless Tina Peters, who is now, for two years out of nine, sitting in a Colorado Maximum Security Prison, at the age of 73, and sick, for the ‘crime’ of trying to stop the massive voter fraud that goes on in her State (where people are leaving in record numbers!),” he wrote on Truth Social before taking aim at Polis and Rubinstein.
“Hard to wish her a Happy New Year, but to the Scumbag Governor, and the disgusting ‘Republican’ (RINO!) DA, who did this to her (nothing happens to the Dems and their phony Mail In Ballot System that makes it impossible for a Republican to win an otherwise very winnable State!), I wish them only the worst,” he continued. “May they rot in Hell. FREE TINA PETERS!”
Peters’s legal team previously requested a pardon from the White House, arguing that language in the Constitution allows presidents to issue pardons for state convictions. In making their case for a presidential pardon, the lawyers cited multiple prison attacks against their client. In response to the request, Trump issued the “full pardon” earlier this month.
The clemency action is widely unrecognized by Colorado Democrats, who argue it does not apply to state-level charges.
“No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions,” Polis said at the time. “This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”
The Washington Examiner contacted Polis’s office for comment in response to Trump’s latest message.
The Republican district attorney in question criticized the president’s statement.
“There’s a saying in the law: if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if neither is on your side, pound the table,” Rubinstein said in a statement to the Hill.
“President Trump has no facts and no law here,” he added. “After trying and failing to invent both, he’s left with nothing but pounding the table.”
TRUMP GRANTS ‘FULL PARDON’ TO TINA PETERS AFTER 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE CONVICTION
Peters’s appeal of her conviction is being processed through Colorado’s court system. Last week, her lawyers requested her release from prison and argued the Colorado appeals court no longer has jurisdiction over the case in light of Trump’s legally dubious pardon.
The court ruled that the Colorado attorney general’s office can respond to Peters’s case for her appeal by Jan. 8, 2026, before hearing arguments from Peter’s lawyers on Jan. 14.
