‘No Remorse’: Colorado Anchor Breaks Down Just How Exceptional Trump-Ally Pardon Would Be

Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP

Local Colorado 9News anchor Kyle Clark discussed Governor Jared Polis’s (D) recent suggestion that he may pardon Tina Peters, the former county election clerk serving a lengthy sentence after being convicted on charges related to election tampering. President Donald Trump has attacked Polis relentlessly and punished Colorado as part of a pressure campaign to get Polis to pardon Peters, who tried to prove Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

“The word pardon gets thrown around, but what Governor Polis is considering here is a commutation. It’s a different form of clemency that is just a shortening of Tina Peters’ sentence. Polis gets a ton of requests from prisoners for commutations, and he’s done it just 25 times in his eight years in office,” Clark began, adding:

We analyzed every one of his commutations, and Tina Peters would stand alone in showing no remorse for what she did and taking no responsibility for the harm she caused. No other inmates have received a commutation from Polis solely for a harsh sentence. And Peters would have the shortest sentence Polis has ever commuted by more than three decades. How hard is it to get clemency in Colorado? Very difficult.

Kyle Giddings from the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition knows very few prisoners will get a letter like this from Governor Polis. Each letter contains the same line: “You have taken accountability for your actions and recognize the mistakes you have made in the past. You are remorseful and ready to advance to a new phase of life.” Tina Peters defiantly defends her decision to lead a breach of Colorado’s voting systems when she was the Republican clerk in Mesa County. Peters and President Trump are demanding clemency anyway.

“Do you think there is a message sent to people who are currently incarcerated if Tina Peters gets clemency?” Clark then asked Giddings for the segment.

“Oh boy, yeah, I think so. There are so many folks who are currently incarcerated that are doing the work to turn their lives around. We get stories and we get letters every day from people who are currently incarcerated, asking for help navigating the processes of returning home and returning to their community. Tina Peters getting clemency and jumping the line in front of all these people, especially the people that are already sitting and just waiting for a signature, sets a precedent that I just can’t imagine what the impact would be on people that are currently incarcerated throughout Colorado,” he replied.

The judge who sentenced Peters savaged her for her behavior in the court, fuming during the sentencing, “I’m convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen. There are many things in my mind that are crystal clear about this case. You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again.”

Peters’s conviction stemmed from her participation in a plot to break into election machines under her supervision and copy data from them to prove fraud — instead voter information from the machines appeared online in August 2021, published in part by QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theorists like Ron Watkins.

Clark later concluded the segment, noting, “Polis has mentioned Peters’ age and health. He has issued one commutation for age and health to an 84-year-old who was blind, deaf, suffering from dementia, and using a wheelchair. Peters is 70 years old, a cancer survivor. She had a cough in prison; her lawyer says that’s improved. And her supporters celebrated when prison video recently emerged of Peters fending off a far younger inmate, pushing the woman across the room with a hand at her neck. Peters’ attorney said she didn’t start that fight.”

Watch the clip above.

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