The latest attempt by former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters to secure release from a state prison fizzled out in federal court Monday.
Chief Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak of the U.S. District Court of Colorado said he lacked the authority to release the former elected official while she attempts to appeal her 2024 state conviction for election-related offenses. Attorneys for Peters had sought the release earlier this year.
While Varholak considered the request in recent weeks, her legal team had argued separately that the former clerk should be released because she was too ill, because her mother was in the hospital and because she was being held in solitary confinement.
Varholak wrote that, “without question, Ms. Peters raises important constitutional questions” about whether she was given a harsher sentence by a Mesa County court because of “her protected First Amendment speech,” related to her unsubstantiated claims of election interference in 2020.
But those questions are still under consideration in the Colorado Court of Appeals, which is weighing Peters’ attempt to challenge her convictions. Varholak said he couldn’t intervene until that appeal was settled.
Peters will remain in a state prison in southern Colorado while she and her supporters search for a way to end the nine-year sentence imposed by a judge after a Mesa County jury convicted her last year. The state appeals court had also previously rejected Peters’ request to be released while her appeal was active.
An attorney for Peters did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Varholak’s order was issued two weeks after Colorado prison officials rejected a request from the Trump administration to transfer Peters to federal custody.
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Perfect Broncos’ storytelling matched with a perfect picture (Letters) Kafer: Under no circumstances should Tina Peters be handed over Colorado officials reject Tina Peters prison transfer request by Trump administration Pressure mounts on Gov. Jared Polis to deny Tina Peters prison transfer request: ‘The silence is deafening’ Colorado attorney general, Mesa County prosecutor urge Gov. Polis not to transfer Tina PetersThe state Department of Corrections said the request did not align with its transfer procedures, and the agency’s rejection came after several officials and groups — including the Mesa County prosecutor who won Peters’ conviction — called on Gov. Jared Polis to deny the federal government’s attempt to take custody of a prominent ally of President Donald Trump.
On social media, the president has repeatedly called for Peters’ release, and a senior Justice Department official has said he’s working to free her. After Colorado officials rejected the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ transfer request last month, Trump called Polis a “sleazebag” and said Peters had been “unfairly convicted.”
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