Trump being urged to intervene in Tina Peters case, sources say [View all]

Source: CNN Politics

Updated Nov 10, 2025, 5:34 PM ET
PUBLISHED Nov 10, 2025, 9:50 AM ET


Fresh off of pardoning a slew of allies who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election, President Donald Trump is being strongly encouraged to intervene in the conviction of Tina Peters, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Peters, the former Republican clerk of Mesa, Colorado, was found guilty last year on state charges of participating in a scheme that hoped to prove Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020. She was sentenced to nine years in prison and is serving her sentence at a women’s prison in Pueblo, Colorado. However, because she was found guilty on state charges, Trump cannot outright pardon her — that power belongs to Colorado’s Democratic governor. But that hasn’t stopped her allies from trying to get her out of prison.

One of the people making the biggest push internally on her behalf is Ed Martin, who is serving as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department after he failed to get enough support to serve as the US attorney in Washington.

Martin has continued to advocate for relief for Peters in recent weeks, several people familiar with the push told CNN, even though it is extremely unusual for the Justice Department to intervene in a state case this way. The department has already involved itself in a long-shot federal case, known as a habeas petition, that Peters filed in March, and urged a federal judge to free her from state prison while she appeals her conviction. That matter is still pending, but a decision is expected this year.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/politics/tina-peters-pardon-push-trump