DENVER (AP) — A federal magistrate judge on Monday denied a former Colorado county clerk’s bid to be released from prison as she appeals her state conviction over false accusations of orchestrating a data breach scheme to commit voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to be held on bail while her appeal is considered. Lawyers for the state argued that the case should be dismissed, in part because of legal principles that prevent federal courts from intervening in pending state criminal cases.
Federal Magistrate Judge Scott Valhorak ruled Monday that Peters had not presented a reason why he should be involved in overturning her state conviction.
Peters argued that the district judge should free her because she said the state judge who sentenced her to nine years in prison violated her First Amendment rights. Peters claimed he was punishing her for raising claims of election fraud, but prosecutors argued the U.S. Supreme Court already allows judges to consider people’s speech in sentencing if they believe it is relevant.
At Peters’ October 2024 sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett called the defendant a “charlatan” and said she posed a danger to the community by spreading lies about the vote and undermining the democratic process.
Peters is unapologetic and insists everything she does is to root out what she sees as fraud. She claimed her actions were for the greater good.
Her attorneys argued that Barrett was wrong to call Peters’ comments “lies” and said there was no evidence her comments posed a danger.
President Donald Trump and other supporters, including retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, have called for Peters’ release. In August, Trump warned that he would “take tough action” if Peters was not released, saying she was old and very sick.
“Get Tina Peters out of jail now. She did nothing wrong except find out that the Democrats were cheating in the election,” Trump posted on his Truth social platform on August 21.
Flynn said Peters, 70, should be transferred to federal custody because she could become a witness in the 2020 election investigation.
In mid-November, the government sent a letter to the Colorado prison system requesting that Peters be transferred to federal custody. One of her attorneys said he believed the request was made to make it easier for Peters to participate in the election investigation.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in Colorado’s elections, and county clerks across the state, the majority of whom are Republicans, have staunchly defended the election. Peters was prosecuted by an elected Republican district attorney, and three supervisors from her conservative-leaning county also supported the case and defended the integrity of the state’s elections.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in Peters’ federal case in March, saying “legitimate concerns” were raised about her prosecution. It also said the Justice Department was reviewing whether the prosecution was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than pursuing actual justice or legitimate government goals,” a line from an executive order titled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government” that Trump signed shortly after taking office.
The state objected to federal involvement, saying the department’s declaration in the case appeared to be a “naked political attempt” to intimidate the court or Peters’ prosecutors. His request to the court to reject his request was unsuccessful.
Peters’ attorneys pointed to three cases in which federal judges ordered people convicted of state crimes to be released from prison pending appeals, including one involving free speech. In a 1977 case, a judge released the late Native American activist Russell Means after he was returned to prison because he remained active in the American Indian Movement while out on bail. State courts essentially banned him from the organization. A federal judge ruled that this was an unconstitutional restriction on his First Amendment rights of speech and association.
Peters challenged her imprisonment under a constitutional provision known as habeas corpus.