Six county clerks again urged Gov. Jared Polis to refuse a federal request to transfer Tina Peters into federal custody Tuesday, with one official arguing that the governor’s silence on the request was “deafening” and “offensive.”
“This issue absolutely transcends politics,” the official, Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick, said during a press call. “It is about right and wrong, lawfulness and accountability, and not creating further damage to the integrity of our elections or escalating opportunities for threats against election officials.”
The call from the Colorado County Clerks Association, delivered in an online news conference Tuesday morning, joins letters from the state’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, and secretary of state, Jena Griswold, who similarly asked that Peters remain in Colorado for the remainder of her nine-year sentence.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons requested the former clerk’s transfer earlier this month. Weiser warned late last week that the transfer request may be a pretext to illegally release Peters.
The governor has not yet indicated how the state would respond to the request. His office did not answer specific questions about it last week, nor did his staff address them when asked again Tuesday.
In a new statement largely focused on the state’s election system, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said Polis “welcomes an opportunity to meet with the clerks to hear from them directly.”
“Governor Polis takes his responsibilities seriously and has been clear that he will take threats from the federal government head-on — especially when they undermine our democracy — which is why we have vigorously defended Colorado’s values during this turbulent time,” Wieman wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, which received the letter, has said only that the request was under review.
A former Mesa County clerk, Peters was convicted last year on several charges related to providing unauthorized access to voting equipment. She became a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Since his return to office, Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly called for Peters’ release and promised “harsh measures” against Colorado if the state didn’t comply. Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, recently said that while the federal government has “to work with Colorado” to secure Peters’ release, the federal government was putting “the right kind of pressure” on the state, which is led by Democratic officials.
Wieman did not respond to questions about Martin’s remarks.
In his letter to the Corrections Department, William K. Marshall III, the director of the federal prisons bureau, wrote that the request would “allow Ms. Peters to serve her existing state sentence within BOP custody as the conditions that she is currently confined in … are not conducive to the factors involved in her case.”
A full copy of the letter was obtained by The Denver Post. Separately, in response to a records request, the state DOC provided a redacted copy this week, with Marshall’s brief explanation for the request blacked out. The DOC said it had withheld the information because it was “contrary to public interest,” citing a related exemption in state law.
The clerks first sent a letter to Polis last week, asking him for a meeting and to reject the request. The governor has not yet responded to that letter, Fitzpatrick said, prompting Tuesday’s call.
The clerks from Denver, Jackson, Mesa, Routt and Kiowa counties also spoke. Several from the group warned about increased threats to election workers.
“I am asking you directly, Gov. Polis: Do not release her to federal custody,” Routt County Clerk Jenny Thomas said. “She has shown no remorse and will likely push others to act illegally if given the opportunity. Doing the right thing still matters. Uphold the justice that was earned under Colorado law. Keep her in Colorado custody. If you don’t, you are telling every clerk from this state that the threats we face don’t matter, that accountability is negotiable.”
Matt Crane, the executive director of the clerks association, said in an interview that clerks had “heard some smoke” that Peters may be transferred. He declined to describe what specifically prompted that concern.
“There was a lot of pressure coming from the (Trump) administration and from the right, and the governor was being silent on it,” Crane said. “And the silence is deafening. And it’s even more deafening now.”
Peters, who is incarcerated at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, was placed in solitary confinement last week after she raised concerns about her safety, according to a notice her attorney filed with a federal judge on Nov. 21.
Her lawyers had earlier claimed that her health was deteriorating, and Peters underwent blood tests and a chest X-ray to check for lung cancer earlier this month. The results of those tests had not been returned as of last week, her attorney, John Case, wrote.
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