US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would “pardon” a Colorado official jailed on charges linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Tina Peters, a former official in Colorado’s Mesa County, was sentenced in October 2024 for allowing an unauthorized Trump supporter to access confidential voting information several months after the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The man was seeking to prove election fraud as part of a conspiracy theory touted by Trump that the vote was rigged.
“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump said in a post on social media Thursday.
“I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”

Peters is jailed under state charges, making her ineligible for a presidential pardon. She was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis criticized the move saying Peters “was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney, and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws, including criminal impersonation.”
“No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions,” Polis said in a social media post Thursday.
“This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”

Shortly after his inauguration in January, Trump offered pardons to everybody convicted in the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court last Thursday allowed Texas to use redrawn congressional districts for the 2026 midterm elections, boosting the hopes of President Donald Trump’s Republicans to retain control of the House of Representatives.

The push by Texas, which carves out five more Republican-friendly districts and came at the behest of Trump, launched a series of similar efforts in states around the country.

The decision by the conservative-dominated high court stayed a lower ruling which had said the redrawn maps “unconstitutionally” sort voters based on race.
“Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections, so I will not delay the Court’s order,” Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on the bench, wrote in his concurring opinion.

The three liberal justices all dissented with the order, which was unsigned.
“The District Court conducted a nine-day hearing… And after considering all the evidence, it held that the answer was clear. Texas largely divided its citizens along racial lines to create its new pro-Republican House map,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.

While the ruling is technically only a temporary halt to the lower court ruling, with a candidate filing deadline next week in Texas, it effectively ensures that the Republican-favored map will be in effect for the 2026 midterms.