'Gross injustice': Critics seethe as Dem governor bends to Trump on election denier

President Donald Trump is a Republican and Colorado Governor Jared Polis is a Democrat, but it looks like Polis is bending to Trump’s pressure that Polis commute the sentence of an election denier — and members of both parties are furious at Polis

"Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law," Polis wrote on the social platform X about the possibility of pardoning or commuting the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. "This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities."

Polis argued in his post that Peters’ sentence is analogous to that of a former state lawmaker recently sentenced to probation and community service after being convicted of one of the same crimes. Yet as journalist Jordan Rubin pointed out at MS NOW, those two cases were very different in important ways.

“Jaquez Lewis was convicted of one count of attempting to influence a public servant and three counts of forgery,” Rubin wrote, explaining that Lewis forged letters to refute allegations she was mistreating her staff and expressed remorse. By contrast, Peters has never expressed remorse for much more serious crimes — per the state conviction, “While serving as the Clerk and Recorder of Mesa County, Ms. Peters deceived county employees to obtain credentials that allowed an unauthorized person to access Mesa County’s voting system after the 2020 election.” He added “even after her conviction, she reaffirmed her position that her conduct was justified by her conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.”

Judge Matthew Barrett, who sentenced Peters, said “this case was about your corrupt conduct and how no one is above the law.” He added, “I consider deterrence in sentencing that is both general and specific that the sentence I impose must deter Ms. Peters from engaging in similar conduct in the future, but it also must deter others generally from engaging in this type of conduct.”

Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with requirements of Colorado’s secretary of state. She allowed QAnon conspiracy theorists to access sensitive voter information in the hope to find evidence of voter fraud, which whenever produced.

“The suggestion that everyone convicted under the same statute should receive the same sentence overlooks why the legislature created a [sentencing] range in the first place: no two crimes and no two defendants are the same,” said Dan Rubinstein, the Republican prosecutor who worked to convict Peters. He added that modifying her sentence “would be a gross injustice to the affected citizens I represent.” In addition to being tried by a Republican prosecutor, Peters is in a county that Trump won by 28 percentage points.

Rubin himself wrote, “Still, as with another of Trump’s pardons for 2020 election–related crimes, the legally limp move sent a strong signal that the president supports the subversive behavior taken on his behalf and, as importantly, that he’ll continue to support such behavior in the future however he can.”

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, said on Thursday that he shares Rubin’s concern.

“Tina Peters knowingly broke the law, undermined our elections, and was rightfully convicted by a jury of her peers,” Bennet said. “At a moment like this, we can’t capitulate to a lawless Administration.”

By contrast Peters’ lawyer Peter Ticktin insists that “(Peters) has been made to stay in prison because people are afraid of what she would say.” He also described her as a “political prisoner.”