Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold declared December 11 that President Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon Tina Peters for state crimes. “His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution,” Griswold wrote.
She’s technically correct. Presidents can’t pardon state convictions. But constitutional lectures from Griswold deserve scrutiny.
This is the Secretary of State the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 9-0 for unconstitutionally trying to remove Trump from Colorado’s 2024 ballot. The same official whose office posted BIOS passwords for voting equipment in 34 counties online for four months—June 21 to October 24, 2024. The same passwords that when Peters allegedly published them became “an unauthorized data breach” in her indictment.
Colorado statute § 1-13-708(2) makes publishing voting system passwords a Class 5 felony carrying 1-3 years. Griswold personally championed this 2022 statute in direct response to Peters’ case. When her office committed the identical violation, Denver DA Beth McCann concluded December 20 there were “no criminal violations” because passwords were published “in error and not knowingly.” The employee who posted the spreadsheet “no longer works there.” Cost to taxpayers: $30,000. Criminal charges: zero.
Peters got nine years for the same violation.
While Trump can’t directly pardon state crimes, he controls federal mechanisms that accomplish the same result. Each is legitimate federal authority given Colorado’s documented failures.
Federal custody transfer for material witnesses. The Trump Justice Department is conducting multi-state investigations into 2020 election issues. DOJ requested Dominion machines from Missouri counties. DOJ demanded “all records” from Colorado’s Secretary of State—enough to “fill Mile High Stadium” according to election officials. DOJ sent letters to at least nine states demanding voter registration data including Social Security numbers. Trump appointed Kurt Olsen, his “stop the steal” lawyer, to investigate 2020 voter fraud allegations.
Peters has forensic images of Mesa County’s Dominion machines from 2020, data showing deleted log files during updates, and direct knowledge of Colorado election procedures. If DOJ investigates whether machines were manipulated, Peters is the material witness who accessed them and has the data.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons requested Peters’ transfer November 12. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn stated she “possesses critical information as a potential federal witness.” Colorado refused. By keeping a material witness in state custody during a federal investigation, Colorado may be obstructing it.
Federal custody transfer for witnesses is routine law enforcement—witness protection, testimony availability, preventing state interference with federal cases.
Federal habeas review after state remedies exhausted. U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak wrote December 8 that Peters “without question” raises “important constitutional questions concerning whether the trial court improperly punished her more severely because of her protected First Amendment speech.”
Judge Matthew Barrett explicitly considered Peters’ refusal to recant election fraud claims as an aggravating factor, calling her “a danger to the community” specifically because releasing her would allow continued public speaking. That’s viewpoint-based sentencing.
Varholak couldn’t intervene—the Younger abstention doctrine prevents federal courts from stepping into ongoing state proceedings. Peters’ state appeal won’t reach oral arguments until January 2026, decision likely mid-2026. But after exhausting state remedies, federal habeas can overturn convictions or order release when constitutional violations are proven. A federal judge already signaled the violations are “without question.”
Federal CRIPA investigation. DOJ announced December 8 it’s investigating Colorado’s 21 state prisons and 12 youth facilities. The investigation examines whether inmates receive constitutional rights regarding medical care, safe conditions, and excessive force protection.
Colorado courts ordered the state to fix prison healthcare three times. The state ignored all three orders. Peters sits at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo—part of the DOC system now under federal investigation. If the investigation finds systemic constitutional violations, remedies could include consent decrees requiring changes, potentially including early release mechanisms for inmates serving sentences connected to documented violations.
Federal funding leverage. Colorado faces potential loss of $500 million in competitive rural healthcare funding. The state filed 43 lawsuits against Trump, defied vaccine mandates, attempted ballot removal, and now refuses federal custody transfer for a material witness while its Secretary of State obstructs federal data requests. The administration can condition federal funding on cooperation with legitimate federal law enforcement.
These aren’t novel mechanisms. They’re standard federal authority that becomes relevant when state governments prove unwilling to fix documented failures or comply with federal investigations.
Colorado’s failures created federal jurisdiction. The state operates with an $850 million structural deficit. School lunch ran 100% over budget. Healthcare for undocumented immigrants cost 1,600% more than projected. Tax competitiveness dropped 11 places while every neighbor improved. Twelve rural hospitals risk closure. Democratic governors held office 18 of the past 19 years. Democrats controlled the legislature with trifecta power since 2018.
The prison system operates at 97% capacity. Douglas County’s average hold time for state prisoners increased from 23 days to 31 days. Technical parole violations increased 20%, filling prisons with non-dangerous people. Civil rights attorney David Lane says his firm “regularly sues DOC for human rights violations.”
If Colorado courts take 2+ years minimum to address constitutional questions a federal judge called “without question” obvious in a single case, how long to fix systemic problems across 21 prisons through state processes? Three ignored court orders already proved state remedies don’t work.
Griswold is correct Trump can’t directly pardon state crimes. But federal authority exists for situations where state officials create jurisdictional conflicts through documented governance failures, where states refuse cooperation with federal investigations, and where state processes prove too slow to address constitutional violations federal judges identify as clear.
Colorado’s response shouldn’t be constitutional lectures from officials whose own actions got overturned 9-0 by the Supreme Court. The response should be fixing problems that made federal intervention necessary.
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