President Donald Trump says he is granting a pardon to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk who is serving a Colorado prison sentence for her role in breaching the security of her own election equipment.

Presidential pardons have been universally understood throughout American history to apply only to federal crimes, not state crimes. Peters was convicted on state charges, and legal experts view the prospect of a pardon for Peters as legally implausible.

Trump announced the pardon on social media.

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“Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!” wrote Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Colorado release Peters.

Peters, 70, is incarcerated at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. The Republican was convicted by a Mesa County jury for her role in a 2021 security breach that was part of an effort to find evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. She was sentenced in October 2024.

Claims that the 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.

Peters’ Florida-based attorney, Peter Ticktin, applied to the Trump administration last month for a pardon. Last week Ticktin sent Trump a nine-page letter in which he detailed his argument that Trump has the power to pardon Peters. He says the Constitution’s references to the United States apply to the individual states as well as the country as a whole, concluding that the president “has the power to grant a pardon in any of the states of the United States.”

Phil Weiser, the Democratic Colorado attorney general, previously said that a presidential pardon for Peters “will not hold up.”

“One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government,” Weiser said earlier this month.

The chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, Shad Murib, said Trump “has no legal authority” to demand that the state release Peters.

“We’re not surprised by President Trump shouting into the wind and issuing a meaningless pardon for his friend and fellow election denier Tina Peters,” Murib said in a statement.