By High Country Advocate Staff
Former county clerk Tina Peters sits in La Vista Women’s Correctional Facility serving a nine-year sentence that President Donald J. Trump calls “an outrage against justice.” Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to “take all necessary action” to secure her release. To supporters, Peters is a political prisoner punished for exposing election vulnerabilities; to others, her case tests the promise of equal justice under law.
In November 2021, FBI agents and Colorado investigators executed search warrants at four locations tied to an election-data inquiry — including Tina Peters’ home. At 6 a.m. agents forced entry, seizing phones and computers.
“They came in like soldiers — combat gear, weapons, pounding on the door. I was terrified,” Peters said afterward. Officials insist the operation was lawful and peaceful, but for Peters it marked the moment she became a national symbol of political retaliation.
Before public life, Tina Peters was a Gold Star mother; her son, a U.S. Navy SEAL, was killed in a training accident. Yet among the four Navy SEALs in Congress — Eli Crane (AZ-2), Derrick Van Orden (WI-3), Ryan Zinke (MT-1), and Morgan Luttrell (TX-8) — none have spoken publicly for the mother of a fallen teammate.
While Peters was prosecuted for “security breaches,” Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold oversaw a confirmed breach of her own. In 2024, Griswold’s office posted a spreadsheet containing hidden BIOS passwords for voting machines across multiple counties. An “internal audit” cited policy violations but deemed the leak “unintentional.” No one was charged or disciplined.
Critics say the contrast is glaring: Peters was jailed; the state was excused.
In 2020, Judicial Watch sued the Secretary of State for failing to purge ineligible voters under the National Voter Registration Act. After a federal judge refused to dismiss key claims, Griswold’s office quietly settled in 2023, agreeing to annual reports on voter-roll maintenance. When new irregularities surfaced in 2024, the court declined to reopen the case — but the settlement forced continued federal monitoring. Despite those findings and the password leak, only Tina Peters was criminally prosecuted.
In March 2025, the Department of Justice under President Trump filed a rare Statement of Interest questioning whether Peters’ prosecution was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than pursuing legitimate justice.” Trump later declared: “Tina Peters is a brave and innocent Patriot. Let her out of jail RIGHT NOW.”
President Trump and the Department of Justice Step In
After the Colorado courts handed down Peters’ nine-year sentence, President Donald J. Trump personally denounced the prosecution as “a disgrace to the Republic.” He has repeatedly described Peters as “a patriot being punished for catching corruption in real time.”
From the White House, President Trump directed the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a formal review of the state’s prosecution, calling for an investigation into whether Colorado’s actions were “motivated by political animus rather than legitimate law enforcement objectives.”
In March 2025, the DOJ filed a rare Statement of Interest in federal court supporting Peters’ petition for relief. The filing stated that the Department had “substantial concerns about fairness, proportionality, and potential political bias in the state’s conduct.” It asked the federal court to “give prompt and careful consideration to Ms. Peters’ request for release while broader constitutional questions are examined.”
That same month, DOJ officials confirmed a humanitarian review of Peters’ confinement, citing credible evidence of deteriorating health and inadequate medical access at the La Vista facility. According to DOJ spokespeople, the review focused on ensuring that her treatment complied with Eighth Amendment standards against cruel and unusual punishment.
The action was extraordinary: state convictions are rarely reviewed at the federal level, and direct DOJ engagement in a state-level case is almost unheard of without executive order. President Trump’s authorization therefore represented a direct assertion of federal oversight—framed by supporters as an act of justice and by critics as a challenge to state sovereignty.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser criticized the intervention as “a political intrusion,” but the White House countered that the Civil Rights Division has full authority to examine potential abuses of prosecutorial discretion.
President Trump later told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base: “Tina Peters was hunted down because she told the truth. My Department of Justice will not stand by while states weaponize their courts for politics. This will be corrected.”
The Department has since opened a parallel civil rights investigation into the handling of Peters’ case and into Colorado’s election security practices, citing inconsistencies between the state’s internal audits and public disclosures following the BIOS password leak.
For many of Peters’ supporters, the DOJ’s review marks a turning point—not just for her case, but for the restoration of trust between citizens and the institutions that govern them.
A Message from Tina Peters:
As I sit here in the confines of La Vista Women’s Correctional Facility, my heart compels me to speak out — not for my own sake, but for the countless women around me who endure these harsh realities day after day. At 70 years old, having lost my son in service to our country, I find myself wrongfully imprisoned, yet my thoughts turn to these sisters in struggle, many so young and full of potential, trapped in a system that fails them profoundly. The daily grind here is unrelenting. Flashlights pierce the darkness hourly through the night, robbing us of restful sleep. We rise early, navigating a routine that offers little solace. Our basic provisions are meager: three uniform tops and bottoms, five pairs each of underwear, bras, and socks — items so flimsy they fray and tear long before their time. With a mere $13 a month in state pay, these women struggle to afford even essentials like shampoo, soap, or deodorant. Out of that meager allowance, every medical visit requires a $3 fee just to be seen. Processed food dominates our trays, and it’s been over a year since I’ve tasted a fresh tomato or crisp romaine lettuce. Education programs drag on for months due to staff shortages, and the parole board punishes women for incomplete courses they never had a fair chance to finish. This system needs reform — not pity, but purpose.
Colorado’s election oversight remains under scrutiny: Judicial Watch proved voter-roll deficiencies; the Secretary of State’s office leaked system passwords; the DOJ has intervened in a state conviction; and a Gold Star mother remains behind bars. “Equal Justice Under Law,” reads the inscription above the Supreme Court. For Tina Peters, that promise has yet to reach La Vista.
Editor’s Note: Public records confirm the 2024 data leak and Judicial Watch settlement. Peters continues to appeal her conviction and seek federal review under President Trump’s directive.
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