{"id":16569,"date":"2025-09-12T10:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-is-not-a-bargaining-chip-polis-says\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:37:21","slug":"tina-peters-is-not-a-bargaining-chip-polis-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-is-not-a-bargaining-chip-polis-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Tina Peters is not a bargaining chip, Polis says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=de24ffd8-c8cd-5702-9b73-d70a50c1242d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1440\" height=\"956\" alt=\"Gov. Jared Polis is interviewed by Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner at Colorado Mesa University\u2019s Asteria Theatre in Grand Junction on Tuesday. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Gov. Jared Polis is interviewed by Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner at Colorado Mesa University\u2019s Asteria Theatre in Grand Junction on Tuesday. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>President Donald Trump wants former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters free from prison, and Gov. Jared Polis holds the power to do so. But don\u2019t expect the term-limited governor to start making deals based on the authority of his elected office just because it seems the guardrails are off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a past version of America, people have gone to jail for that. Isn\u2019t that something people should go to jail for, Ryan?\u201d Polis told Colorado Matters Senior Host Ryan Warner about the possibility of trading a Peters pardon for more favorable treatment from the federal government. \u201cIf that happens, I mean, that\u2019s the America we need to get back to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polis joined Warner at Colorado Mesa University\u2019s Asteria Theatre for an interview in front of hundreds of Western Slope residents. He discussed federal overreach, Colorado\u2019s response and why he wouldn\u2019t consider pardoning Peters, who was convicted and sentenced last year to nine years\u2019 incarceration for her role in permitting unauthorized access to county voting equipment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe use the power of the pardon and commutations very seriously. Would we look at this on humanitarian grounds if she\u2019s old or sick and so she doesn\u2019t die in prison? I do that. I do pardons for that reason, and I would treat her the same way,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to calls from President Trump on social media, hundreds of messages have flooded the governor\u2019s office asking for Peters to be released. Polis said his office would handle a request from Peters no differently than any other pardon request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve pardoned people that are in their 70s and ill, and maybe they committed a horrible crime 20 or 30 years ago, but they\u2019re not going to commit again, and they should have the dignity to die in their home. I\u2019m not saying that won\u2019t happen (with Peters), but it certainly won\u2019t happen as part of an exchange or trade that would be wrong, and it\u2019ll be contrary to justice itself,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-2acb8587eac0c288026b3e54fbf43809\">To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado governor fields questions from residents during Colorado Matters event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[819,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20273,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16569\/revisions\/20273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16569"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}