DOJ wants ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters moved to federal custody after Trump calls for freedom

The Justice Department has requested that the Bureau of Prisons looks into ways to have ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters transferred out of Colorado state prison and into a federal facility following her conviction last year and after President Donald Trump’s calls for her to be freed.

The Office of Deputy Attorney General, led by Todd Blanche, the second-in-command to Attorney General Pam Bondi, sent an email Wednesday evening to Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall, Just the News has learned, calling on the BOP to look into how Peters could be moved from state prison into federal custody.

“At the request of the Deputy Attorney General, please have the Bureau of Prisons explore any and all avenues within BOP’s authority to seek and request the transfer of Ms. Tina Peters from the Colorado Department of Corrections to a federal BOP facility,” the DOJ email to BOP says. “We ask that BOP send out a request to Colorado as soon as possible and that BOP begin preparations for any possible transfer into federal custody.”

Peters was found guilty in August 2024 on a total of seven charges – four felonies and three misdemeanors in connection with an election security breach following the 2020 election. She was found not guilty on the three remaining counts. Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2024.

“FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by crooked Colorado politicians, including the big Mail-In Ballot supporting the governor of the State,” Trump said on Truth Social in August. “Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election. She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!”

Colorado Judge Matthew Barrett, who sentenced Peters last year, declared that “you are no hero” and that “you are a charlatan.”

An executive order by Trump and a memo by Bondi regarding the end of “weaponization” within the Justice Department were applied in the Peters case earlier this year.

Trump’s executive order on “Ending the Weaponization of The Federal Government” was issued on Inauguration Day in January.

“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” Trump said. “These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Bondi’s follow-up DOJ-wide memo on “Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of The Department of Justice” was issued in early February, and it established the “Weaponization Working Group.”

Bondi said the group “will conduct a review the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States over the last four years … to identify instances where a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Trump’s executive order and Bondi’s memo were cited by the DOJ when it sought to intervene in the state-level Colorado prosecution against Peters, who was convicted last year.

Peters has appealed her case, and she filed a federal application for a writ of habeas corpus in February.

Yaakov Roth, then the acting assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Division, filed a statement of interest with the federal court in March, where he would end up citing Trump’s order and Bondi’s memo.

“Tina Peters has sought relief in this action through an Application filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The United States respectfully submits this Statement of Interest pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 517.

“Ms. Peters is currently incarcerated while pursuing a direct appeal of her underlying nonviolent convictions and combined nine-year sentence,” the DOJ said. “The Application explains that Ms. Peters suffers from serious health issues and that, while incarcerated, her physical and mental health have deteriorated. Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case.”

The DOJ added in March that “the United States respectfully submits that the concerns raised in the Application warrant — at the very least — prompt and careful consideration by this Court (and, at the appropriate time, the Colorado appellate courts).”

Roth cited Bondi’s memo and stated that “parallel to these proceedings and Ms. Peters’ direct appeal, the Department of Justice is reviewing cases across the nation for abuses of the criminal justice process.”

The DOJ official also cited Trump’s order, stating that “this review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado’s prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was” — and here he began quoting Trump’s executive order — “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”