After Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ restricted commutation of the nine-year sentence for former Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters, he has been blasted nonstop by Democrats, left-leaning journalists, and legacy media retailers. Peters grew to become a lightning rod for election integrity advocates and judicial reformists over her 2024 conviction for election interference and making an attempt to affect a public official when she uncovered voting info from a Dominion machine. Polis thought of her nine-year sentence to be unusually punitive, notably in gentle of Sonja Jaquez Lewis, a former Democrat state senator, whose 2024 legal indictment was in the same class as Peters’. 

Jaquez Lewis’ indictment included 4 felonies: making three false statements to 4 public officers. Not only had been these costs mixed from three false statements to one, but Jaquez Lewis was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, 150 hours of neighborhood service, and a high-quality.

Not precisely justice equally utilized. Polis outlined this reasoning in Peters’ letter of clemency.

However, this is an extraordinarily uncommon and prolonged sentence for a first time offender who dedicated nonviolent crimes.

I agree with the precept highlighted by the Colorado Court of Appeals in your case that, “…the First Amendment generally prohibits punishing someone for their protected speech. ‘[A] court may not punish an individual by imposing a heavier sentence for the exercise of [F]irst [A]mendment rights. . . . A sentence based to any degree on activity or beliefs protected by the [F]irst [A]mendment is constitutionally invalid.’”

Further I agree, in this case, “[T]he trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing. Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud.

Indeed, under these circumstances, just as her purported beliefs underlying her motive for her actions were not relevant to her defense, the trial court should not have considered those beliefs relevant when imposing sentence.”

Polis did a video explaining how and why he made his alternative to cut Peters’ sentence in half from virtually 9 years to four-and-a-half. In his interviews with legacy media, Polis continued to emphasize this level, despite legacy media’s obsession with making it about President Donald Trump and 2020 election denialism. 

When Polis appeared on GWN, host Kaitlan Collins tried to steer him in that direction to additional give credence to this drained narrative. Surprisingly, Polis didn’t play ball.

POLIS: Thousands of people, of course, have weighed in, people called my workplace, some incorrectly thought she did not commit a crime, as the president did, thought she must be pardoned — we’re going to struggle the president’s unlawful pardon in court. Some like me thought she was guilty, ought to have had a barely decrease sentence. Others wished her to keep there for a long time and essentially misunderstood the crime. Thought it had one thing to do with the 2020 election or election conspiracy around Trump and Biden, when the crime had zero to do with that.

COLLINS: You do not suppose its.. its.. had Trump not disputed the 2020 election, had Mike Lindell not develop into this well-known determine on TV disputing the election outcomes in 2020, that what occurred in 2021 in Mesa County would have occurred?

POLIS: Well, to be clear: this was the clerk that licensed the 2020 election outcomes. There was not an issue there. There had been some points around her competency [COLLINS interrupts] This was a municipal election —

COLLINS: I’m just asking, if you do not suppose that what occurred in 2020… you do not suppose this would have occurred? You just suppose that those are completely separate? That this would have occurred even if the president, if that never occurred in 2020 with a major election dispute, stress on the Vice President, and on state election officers, from Georgia to Colorado to wherever, on that. You do not suppose that would have occurred?

POLIS: You’d have to have her on to speak about her motivation. Do I believe that she was egged on or inspired in her unlawful acts by people like Mike Lindell, or maybe, even, the President of the United States, it is actually conjecture, but it is actually doable. I do not know how she got here to maintain her beliefs. I actually consider that there are incorrect, harmful beliefs that are held in sure circles in our nation. 

Ultimately it is a matter of free speech until you cross the road and violate the law, which she did. And that’s why she dedicated the crime and she ought to do the crime with a sentence that’s powerful and honest. That’s why she’ll… her sentence has been adjusted to four-and-a-half years, which is a very extreme sentence for what she did. When again, another public official in Colorado received probation only for one of these acts of felony and three other felonies.

WATCH:

Polis: Some misunderstood the crime. Thought it had one thing to do with the 2020 election when the crime had zero to do with that.

Collins: You do not suppose had Trump not disputed the 2020 election, had Mike Lindell not develop into this well-known determine on TV disputing the election… pic.twitter.com/JNYwvd2dpA

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2026

Polis debunked a number of speaking factors on the Left and the Right:

1. The 2021 election, in which Peters dedicated her crimes, was a municipal one, which implies she didn’t violate federal legal guidelines and therefore couldn’t obtain a pardon from the President of the United States.
2. The felonies Peters was convicted of had “zero” to do with the 2020 election and all the mess that went along with it.
3.   Peters’ authentic sentence shouldn’t have been based on her beliefs, but on her actions.

Read More: Tina Peters Granted Clemency by CO Governor, While Dem Elected Officials Again Melt Down

CO Governor Looks at Clemency for Tina Peters After Dem State Senator Gets Probation for Same Charges

This video from Peters’ 2024 sentencing listening to offers credence to Polis’ and her attorneys’ evaluation that Peters’ free speech rights had been violated. Noteworthy in Judge Matthew Barrett’s rant while sentencing Peters are these baseless accusations: 

Yes, you might be a charlatan. And you can not help but lie as simple it’s as you to breathe.

And this is what makes Ms. Peters such a hazard to our neighborhood. It’s the place she held that has supplied her the pulpit from which she will preach these lies. The undermining of our democratic course of. The undermining of the assumption and confidence in our election systems. It’s not about questioning it, no one says you possibly can’t query, you possibly can’t ask, it is fully different. And if you do not perceive, nothing I can say or do right here today that will change your thoughts. So, the injury that is induced and continue to be induced, is just as unhealthy, if not worse, than the bodily violence that this court sees on an all too common foundation. And it is notably damaging when those phrases comes from somebody who holds a place of affect such as you.

WATCH:

Judge at Tina Peters’ trial: “You are a charlatan. You lie as easily as you breathe. The damage is immeasurable.”

Yet @GovofCO Polis bends the knee and does Trump’s bidding, promoting a a lot different story. 🤔

(From @hissgoescobra) pic.twitter.com/c8Qt4lxukl

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 16, 2026

More harmful than bodily violence? Totally on model with the Left’s assaults on free speech and their insistence that phrases are violence. Except this time it’s spouted from the mouth of an activist choose, who had the ability to punish Peters for those phrases and ideas that he just did not like. Barrett’s insistence that Peters’ function as an election official with affect made her phrases more damaging is sort of laughable. By this customary, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) must be on trial. In 2024, Griswold not only tried to take away former President Donald Trump fully from the 2024 presidential poll, but even after Trump was duly elected and sworn in, Griswold continued to spout election denialism and conspiracy theories about Trump being a hazard to democracy.

Donald Trump is a liar. We have great elections. Trump is a menace to our democracy.

— Jena Griswold (@JenaGriswold) September 11, 2024

It was none other than Griswold whom Kaitlan Collins and GWN introduced on to debunk Polis’ statements, claiming that granting Peters clemency is the “wrong message to send in a time when our democracy is in crisis.” 

WATCH:

GWN brings on CO Secretary of State Jena Griswold to debunk Jared Polis’ declare that Tina Peters’ conviction had nothing to do with the 2020 election:

“Her actions has all the things to do with the 2020 election. The governor is right that she facilitated the compromising of… pic.twitter.com/TUaKO7v4rY

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2026

GWN brings on CO Secretary of State Jena Griswold to debunk Jared Polis’ declare that Tina Peters’ conviction had nothing to do with the 2020 election: 

“Her actions has everything to do with the 2020 election. The governor is correct that she facilitated the compromising of voting equipment during 2021. But make no mistake, the intent of her work was to try to prove trump’s big lie.”

It is Griswold who is the one in disaster. Griswold is on the 2026 poll to be the next attorney normal. However, her partisan and sloppy work as secretary of state, coupled with her function in Peters’ conviction and sentencing, retains coming to the forefront and ruining her election possibilities. Here is Griswold attempting to do a tune and dance denial after she uncovered voting machine passwords and did not disclose it. A leaked audio recording confirms the cover-up, which might have continued had the Colorado GOP not gotten wind of it.

WARNING: Strong Language in the X thread and audio.

WATCH:

And right here it’s:

An audio recording has been obtained of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold telling local election officers they weren’t informed she leaked Dominion voting machine passwords online because she wished to keep away from inflicting a “media storm.”

“Griswold told me… pic.twitter.com/N04XDrgTSm

— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) May 16, 2026

And here it is:

An audio recording has been obtained of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold telling local election officials they weren’t informed she leaked Dominion voting machine passwords online because she wanted to avoid causing a “media storm.”

“Griswold told me that day that the bitch hadn’t decided whether the public was ever going to be told.”

A Democrat election official said her cause was “BULLSHIT” and that he was “PISSED OFF” about the leak.

In other phrases, it wasn’t unintentional. It was a deliberate attempt, one month before the 2024 presidential election, to overthrow the U.S. authorities.

📝the b**ch belongs in prison.

Mark this down: Once all this shakes out, Gov. Jared Polis would be the hero of this saga, and Griswold would be the villain. She is aware of this full effectively, which is why she’s working interference. 

🙏 Jared Polis has granted a restricted commutation to Tina Peters

That is the very LEAST that must be carried out.

Tina uncovered a crime, she didn’t commit a crime.

I discover it arduous to consider that Polis does not know the reality by now, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I… pic.twitter.com/0BdYTCvOrc

— Mark Cook (@PatriotMarkCook) May 15, 2026

Jared Polis has granted a restricted commutation to Tina Peters

That is the very LEAST that must be carried out.

Tina uncovered a crime, she didn’t commit a crime.

I discover it arduous to consider that Polis does not know the reality by now, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I’ve no downside exhibiting him the reality; as one developer to another, when he sees it for himself, he’ll know that Tina is a hero and not a legal.

As far as the other letter: Someone ought to let our fool SoS that we DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY!

We have a Constitutional Republic.

And every lie she has told about Tina can be uncovered, and little mis jena is not going to escape penalties for those lies.

By granting Peters a restricted commutation, Polis successfully distanced himself from Griswold and the other Democrats’ actions. 

Making him smarter than them by a long shot.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will decide the destiny of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must keep control of both chambers of Congress.

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