OK, here’s my theory on Donald Trump’s phony-baloney, unconstitutional and ultimately feckless pardon of convicted election denier and fraudster Tina Peters:
Since Trump has no actual power to pardon Peters because the former Mesa County clerk was convicted in a state court — and presidents, going back to at least 1789, can legally pardon only those convicted in federal court — he simply pretended to pardon her.
It’s not exactly lying, what Trump is doing. But it’s sort of lying-adjacent. The Peters pardon is an offshoot, of course, of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was rigged. And Trump, when he’s not seeking retribution against his enemies, is seeking what he calls, uh, justice for those who broke the law for him — even when he can’t. (See the latest in the DOJ’s embarrassingly failed attempts to indict Trump enemies Letitia James and James Comey.)
Peters, an election clerk who should have known better, still believes in the Big Lie, as she has said at every opportunity. So much so that when the judge sentenced her last year, he called Peters an unrepentant “charlatan” who “betrayed” her oath.
As we know, a betraying charlatan sounds like Trump’s kind of gal, either that or a youngish blond, Trump-acolyte hire who, as he recently said of press secretary Karoline Leavitt, is great on TV because she has “those lips that don’t stop. Pop-pop-pop like a little machine gun.”
The pretend pardon partially satisfies the FREE TINA! wing of his MAGA base — from which polls say Trump is leaking support, because of the economy and the Epstein files and probably the fact that millions are going to see their health insurance costs skyrocket on the first of January.
What’s more, the phony pardon — some are calling it symbolic, but a symbol of what? — is meant to show the base that Trump hasn’t forgotten Peters. He was reminded of her recently when her lawyer, Peter Ticktin, sent Trump a long letter insisting, despite the testimony of legal experts, that he could, in fact, use his pardon power on those convicted of state crimes.
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And with the pardon, Trump also gets to again show off his longrunning disdain for the Constitution. Next stop: trying to persuade the Supreme Court, which has actually agreed to hear the case, to undo birthright citizenship. That piece of plainly written constitutional law, by the way, goes back only to the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868.
It should be noted, though, that after Trump announced Peters’ supposed full pardon on social media, he has rarely, if ever, mentioned it since.
Maybe that’s because, as Gov. Jared Polis tweeted in response to the Peters pardon: “Tina Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney, and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws, including criminal impersonation. No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions. This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”
It’s pretty straightforward, although Peters’ lawyer would have you think otherwise. He submitted a letter to Trump in support of the pardon, claiming that presidents can, in fact, legally pardon someone convicted in state court.
But maybe even more straightforward is Attorney General Phil Weiser’s takeaway on that position, saying in an interview with 9News’ Kyle Clark, “It’s total garbage.”
I agree. It’s total garbage and it’s not even real, at least not yet. As of the latest update on Wednesday, the Peters pardon appears nowhere on the Office of the Pardon Attorney website, which documents, for either your amusement or your revulsion or both, Trump’s unprecedented pardon and commutation spree, which is approaching 2,000 names, starting with 1,500 or so January 6th rioters, a few of whom are already back in jail.
There are whole categories of those Trump has pardoned — celebrities, athletes, friends, relatives of friends, particularly crooked billionaires, particularly crooked politicians of both parties, and, of course, those enmeshed in drug crimes. The list goes on.
But to show Trump’s, well, venality, he recently pardoned Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, and his wife, before his trial for accepting bribes, with the expectation that he would change parties. When Cuellar announced he would still run as a Democrat in 2026, Trump accused him of “Such a lack of LOYALTY.” Quid pro quo much?
Trump’s pardons seem to get worse by the day. We know he just pardoned the former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years on drug charges, which included sending about 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S. over 20 years. At the same time Trump is saying that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has to be replaced because of his ties to drugs sent to the U.S.
Worse, Trump’s need to be rid of Maduro is, in part, his explanation for sinking allegedly drug-running speedboats from Venezuela on the open seas and why two survivors of one such attack had to be killed.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Tuesday that thousands of defrauded victims are seething over Trump’s commutation of David Gentile’s seven-year sentence for a $1.6 billion scheme. Yeah, I never heard of him either, but the jury who tried him took only four hours to get to the verdict. And yet Trump set him free just days after Gentile began his sentence.
In the case of Peters, though, a pretend pardon may work quite well for Trump, although not so much for Peters, who, last I checked, is still in prison having served the first year of her nine-year sentence. You could send her a happy holidays card at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, but that would be gratuitously cruel, and you wouldn’t want to sink to Trump’s routine level of cruelty.
Despite the pardon, no one is coming to spring Peters, unless it’s some bored jackbooted ICE agents who find they need a change-up from their regular job of throwing often innocent Spanish-speakers into jail.
So why pardon her now?
Trump has done what he can to free Peters. He tried to get Polis to pardon her. Polis wouldn’t. Trump tried to get her transferred to federal prison, from which he might be able to commute her sentence or something. Polis said he couldn’t. Peters asked for bail while appealing her verdict. It was denied.
In response, Trump called Polis a “sleazebag.” He has called Weiser worse, which almost certainly helps Weiser in his bid to become governor in anti-Trump Colorado.
Trump has threatened, illegally of course, to withhold federal funds from the state — a blue state, making it extra fun for Trump — but a judge has said no to that, too. He’s threatening the same thing to red-state Indiana because the GOP-led state legislature refused his requests to redistrict.
The DOJ is saying it will investigate Colorado prisons because, I guess, that Peters has said she has been treated badly. I’d love to see a full investigation of the prisons, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
And when Trump announced his full pardon of Peters — whom he calls a “political prisoner” and “hero” and says she was jailed for “the ‘crime’ of demanding Honest Elections” — he did what he could.
It’s not unprecedented exactly. Last month, Trump pardoned Rudy Giuliani, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former CU professor and disbarred Trump attorney John Eastman, the redoubtable Sidney Powell and nearly 70 others connected to Trump’s Big Lie, even though none of them face federal charges.
Thwarted at every turn in the Peters case — and because Trump is not a full-blown dictator, at least not yet — he simply declared victory and went back to more important stuff, like firing his ballroom architect.
But Trump will be back. As surely as there are election laws, drug laws, bribery laws, corruption laws, yet to be broken.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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