'Ridiculous': Dem enrages his own party as he hints at clemency for MAGA convict

Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) continues to give signals he's in favor of giving at least partial clemency to imprisoned former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to reduce her prison term — and Democrats in the legislature are enraged, according to The Colorado Sun.

Peters, a proponent of 2020 election conspiracy theories, was convicted of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit impersonation, official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order of the secretary of state, related to a plot in which she tried to tamper with election equipment to prove the race was stolen from President Donald Trump.

Since her conviction and nine-year sentence, the MAGA sphere has made her a martyr and symbol of their cause, demanding she be freed and trying to concoct harebrained schemes involving the Justice Department fabricating a federal case to use her as a witness. Trump has issued a "symbolic" pardon of Peters, but it doesn't actually have any legal weight because she was convicted on state charges, so only Polis can grant her clemency.

In the meantime, Trump has issued legal threats against Colorado and blocked funding for various federally-backed projects in the state, causing even pro-Trump lawmakers like Rep. Lauren Boebert to protest.

Polis has denied he is considering a pardon for Peters, but this week publicly suggested her sentence was too long in a post to X. He compared the sentence to the much milder sentence of probation and community service for former Democratic state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who was convicted of influencing a public servant and forgery for sending fake letters to vouch for herself in a state ethics probe against her treatment of subordinates.

“It is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence,” he wrote. “Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law.”

Democrats in the legislature were enraged by this comparison, reported The Sun: "'I don’t see the connection,' said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat who thinks the governor should not reduce Peters’ sentence. State Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat, called the comparison 'ridiculous.' State Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat, called it 'strikingly disingenuous.'"

All in all, not a single Democrat contacted by The Sun supported clemency for Peters, and some, like state Rep. Emily Sirota, even suggested the legislature would pass a resolution of disapproval against Polis if he moved ahead with it: “The things she did require a response to demonstrate that interfering with our elections while she was clerk will not be tolerated.”