President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has granted a full pardon to former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters, calling her a “patriot” who was persecuted by Democrats for challenging the 2020 election results.

“Tina, a Gold Star Mother who is in poor health, is now serving nine years in a Colorado state prison for challenging the 2020 elections,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The left wants her dead.”

The pardon — while largely symbolic — immediately reignited controversy around Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence in Colorado state prison following her 2024 conviction on charges related to accessing and copying voting machine data after the 2020 election. Because she was convicted on state charges, Trump’s federal clemency power does not compel Colorado officials to release her, though legal experts say it could form the basis for a new review or political pressure campaign to commute her sentence at the state level.

“Democrats only think there is one crime — not voting for them!” Trump said in his statement. “Instead of protecting Americans and their tax dollars, Democrats chose instead to prosecute anyone they can find that wanted safe and secure elections.”

“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of Tina Peters, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest. Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections,” Trump continued. “Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!”

Peters, 69, the former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, rose to national prominence among election integrity activists after she publicly claimed that she had discovered irregularities in Colorado’s voting systems. State prosecutors later charged her with tampering with election equipment and obstruction of a government operation, alleging she illegally allowed a third party to copy sensitive data from county voting machines.

She was convicted on three counts in October 2024 and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Supporters say Peters acted as a whistleblower who sought to preserve data that could prove fraud in the 2020 election — data that officials had ordered deleted under federal guidelines. “She was jailed for preserving evidence from the 2020 elections that she was told to delete,” a statement from her legal team said at the time. “The judge berated her, insulted her, and told her she had ‘privilege.’”

Trump’s announcement came days after a federal magistrate judge rejected Peters’ habeas corpus petition seeking early release. Her attorney and longtime Trump associate Peter Ticktin said the former clerk has faced abuse behind bars.

“Tina Peters has been attacked three times by other inmates,” Ticktin wrote in a letter obtained by reporters. “She is a Gold Star Mother and a patriot who should never have been in prison to begin with.”

In May, Trump’s Justice Department directed federal attorneys to “take all necessary action to release this political prisoner from the Biden regime,” following an amicus brief filed on Peters’ behalf by Ticktin.

Trump has repeatedly condemned Colorado officials, particularly Attorney General Phil Weiser, for pursuing the case. “Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters.

“Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” Trump wrote in May. “This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020.”

Colorado officials have maintained that Peters was convicted for clear violations of state law, not her political views. In a statement last year, Attorney General Weiser said, “No one is above the law. This conviction upholds the integrity of Colorado’s elections.”

Trump’s pardon, though legally unenforceable at the state level, amounts to a formal declaration of support from the Oval Office. The White House has not ruled out additional actions, including a federal review of her treatment in prison.