Former election clerk Tina Peters released after Trump pressure campaign

Tina Peters, a former Colorado official convicted of allowing election machine tampering, has been released from state prison following a pressure campaign by United States President Donald Trump.

As Peters left state prison on Monday, Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold issued a statement expressing opposition to her release.

“It sends a dangerous message about accountability for those who would attack elections,” Griswold wrote.

“Peters’ release also will embolden the election denial movement; since the grant of clemency, she has continued to spread election falsehoods and conspiracies.”

Peters is a Trump supporter, and during the 2020 presidential race, she was part of an election denial movement that rejected Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden as fraudulent.

In a bid to prove that false claim, Peters allowed an unauthorised member of the public to access local electronic voting systems and copy their hard drives. She was a county clerk for Mesa County, Colorado, at the time.

She was ultimately sentenced to nine years in state prison for participating in the security breach.

But Trump and his allies have held her up as an example of political persecution.