President Donald Trump meets with Tina Peters in the Oval Office on Tuesday after her release from state prison earlier in the month. Peters, a former Colorado county election clerk, was convicted in connection with efforts related to the 2020 presidential election, and she served about two years of a nine-year sentence for conspiring to publicize voting machine records in Mesa County. Reports say Trump posted that Peters came to the White House to thank him for actions associated with her release, including his administration’s pressure on Colorado Governor Jared Polis to grant clemency.
Both accounts describe how Peters became prominent in Republican “election denial” circles. She is reported to have turned off cameras during the process while allowing others aligned with election fraud claims to copy, photograph, and download voting-related information. The outlets also note that prosecutors found no evidence supporting Peters’s allegations of voter fraud. In public posts, Trump frames the meeting as honoring Peters and criticizes how she was treated by authorities, while acknowledging her conviction and prison term.
