Arizona Rep Hamadeh urges Colorado Gov Polis to grant Tina Peters clemency

Arizona GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh urged Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to grant clemency for Tina Peters, a former County Clerk convicted in connection with an election security breach in the 2020 election.

"I wrote this letter to Colorado Governor @JaredPolis, urging him to put partisan politics aside and grant clemency to Gold Star Mother and election integrity whistleblower @realtinapeters," Hamadeh posted on X on Tuesday. "We live in hyper-politicized times, and this gesture of compassion would go a long way toward easing tensions in our country. I encourage him to do the right thing and free Tina Peters."

Hamadeh's post included a picture of a letter he wrote to Polis on Monday, in which he said, "I write to you today with deep gratitude for the wisdom you have shown through your consideration of granting Gold Star mother Tina Peters clemency. Your apparent willingness to put aside partisan politics and see that Ms. Peters' nine-year sentence is outrageous is statesmanship at its highest order.

"As a former prosecutor, I find your position on the need to balance public safety with allowing older individuals to spend their final years at home, heartening. Too often, our justice system fails to adequately deliver justice in the truest sense of the word justice," he continued.

"In the case of Ms. Peters, I firmly believe that mercy is the only response to the grave injustice Ms. Peters has experienced in a case so tainted by partisan politics," Hamadeh added.

"I urge you to grant clemency to Ms. Peters and send the signal to our fellow citizens that we still share the values of fairness and compassion, especially at this time when partisan politics has created such a wide bitter divide in our country."

Polis told CBS News on Monday regarding Peters' case, "You look at every case on clemency on the merits. You have somebody who is nonviolent, a first-time offender, elderly. On the other hand, does she take full accountability for her crime? We don't look at this in isolation."

"I have dozens of these requests that we look at regularly, and I want to make sure that we don't look at this one in any different way," Polis said, adding that he has not made a decision.

The governor said he will only make his decision based on the facts of the case, "and there's some that work in her favor, some that work against her."

Peters was convicted in 2024 of four felonies and three misdemeanors. She was sentenced to nine years in prison. Following the 2020 election, Peters provided a man affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell with a security badge to allow him to copy the hard drive of a ballot marking machine.

Peters insisted that she had done nothing wrong and was trying to prevent and discover voter fraud.

President Trump granted Peters a federal pardon, which doesn't apply to state convictions like Peters'.