Colorado officials reject federal push to transfer convicted clerk Tina Peters out of state custody

COLORADO (KRDO) – Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk currently behind bars for tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election, will stay in state custody after Colorado’s Department of Corrections (CDOC) declined a Department of Justice request to transfer her into federal custody.

"Requests to transfer inmates from the Colorado Department of Corrections emanate from the state, and not from other entities. The Department is not currently seeking any transfer," CDOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez told our Denver affiliate, 9NEWS.

Peters is currently serving a nine-year sentence handed down in October 2024 for her role in a data-breach scheme she claimed aimed to prove widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

In March, the DOJ took the highly unusual step of asking a federal judge to consider releasing her from state prison. The department argued that "reasonable concerns" had been raised about parts of her case, and announced it was reviewing her prosecution for potential "abuses of the criminal justice process.

READ MORE: Trump’s DOJ to review Tina Peters’ conviction in Colorado election tampering case

President Trump has repeatedly pressured federal officials to intervene, taking to Truth Social to call Peters an “innocent political prisoner” and urging the DOJ to "take all necessary action" to secure her release.

The CDOC's statement on Tuesday follows a petition from state officials urging Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to resist growing pressure from the Trump administration and keep Peters in state custody. Both Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein (R), along with the Colorado County Clerks Association, sent letters to Polis opposing the move.

According to our Denver news partners, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a notice to the CDOC on Nov. 12, pressing for Peters to be moved out of Colorado custody. Earlier this week, Peter's attorney also endorsed the idea of Trump using the military to free her.

But for now, the state says Peters will remain under Colorado's jurisdiction, continuing her sentence inside a Colorado prison.

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