A bipartisan group of local Colorado election officials on Tuesday again made an impassioned, and at times emotional, plea to Governor Jared Polis to promptly and publicly reject a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to transfer Tina Peters to federal custody.

Hayle Johnson, president of the Colorado County Clerks Association and a five-term Republican clerk and recorder in Jackson County, appeared to hold back tears as she described the oath that she and other clerks had taken to uphold the Constitution and state and federal laws, calling on Polis to ensure they “had not done so in vain.”

“If you transfer Tina Peters to federal custody, you are making a statement that elected officials are above the law,” Johnson said during an online press conference with other clerks from around the state. “This is a very dangerous precedent. I urge you, Governor Polis — stand with Colorado county clerks. Stand with democracy.”

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Amid mounting pressure from Trump and other far-right figures in the election conspiracy theory movement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons sent a letter to the Colorado Department of Corrections earlier this month, requesting that the state “initiate the transfer” of Peters, the former Republican Mesa County clerk who is serving a nine-year sentence in a state prison in Pueblo for her role in a breach of her office’s election systems during a 2021 software update. Trump called again for Peters’ release in a social media post Sunday, describing her actions as “attempting to expose voter fraud in the rigged 2020 presidential election.”

Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement, the courts and Trump’s own campaign and administration officials.

Tuesday’s press conference followed a letter that the clerks association sent to Polis, a Democrat, last week, urging him to reject the BOP’s request and asking him to meet personally with county clerks, the local officials who oversee elections in the state’s 64 counties, before making any decision. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who prosecuted the Peters case, sent a similar letter last week.

Clerks said they had not received a response from the governor to their letter or their request for a meeting. A brief statement from a Polis spokesperson on Friday said only that he and the Department of Corrections were “reviewing the letter” from the Trump administration.

Amid the governor’s silence on the issue, Democratic Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick told reporters there had been an “immediate uptick in concerns about safety” over the weekend. Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes, a Republican, spoke about dealing with threats and harassment from election conspiracy theorists in the years since Peters was first charged, including her decision to hide her pregnancy because of “disgusting remarks” targeting her online.

“I’ve had to have multiple conversations since 2021 with my family, including this weekend, about credible threats. That conversation, Governor Polis, never gets easier,” Koppes said. “Ms. Peters’ decisions, that she made all on her own, have had a massive impact on me and my fellow clerk and recorders, and the families that love and support us.”

‘Deafening’ silence

Trump does not have the power to pardon Peters, who was convicted on state charges. The Colorado DOC on Monday provided Newsline with a partially redacted copy of the one-page letter sent by the BOP on Nov. 12 to Moses “Andre” Stancil, the DOC’s executive director. The letter requests Peters’ transfer “for the purpose of serving a state-imposed sentence within a federal correctional institution.” The DOC has not responded to Newsline’s request for a written explanation of the redactions in the released record.

“Thank you for your attention and cooperation in this matter,” reads the letter, signed by BOP director William Marshall.

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Peters has separately filed a petition for release in the form of a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, a case that has been pending since February. In a series of filings in that case following the BOP request, Peters’ attorneys have stated that she is in “declining health” and alleged that she had been placed in solitary confinement after objecting to a corrections officer’s treatment of her. A social media account that frequently posts updates about Peters’ case claimed on Sunday that she had been “moved out of solitary (confinement)” after an investigation.

Earlier this month, DOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez described transfers to federal custody as “typically reserved for complex cases involving significant, long-term safety and security needs.” In a brief statement Monday, Gonzalez reiterated that under the department’s regulations, such a move “is an action initiated by the Colorado Department of Corrections, not an outside entity.”

Fitzpatrick said Polis’ refusal, nearly two weeks after the state’s receipt of the Trump administration’s request, to clearly and publicly rule out such a move is “already causing harm to clerks across Colorado.”

“His silence is deafening, and it’s also offensive,” said Fitzpatrick. “It’s deeply offensive to county clerks, it’s deeply offensive to the Republicans and Democrats who serve as election judges and actually implement these elections, and it’s deeply offensive to voters.”