A state judge in Colorado rejected far-right former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters' motion to have him recuse himself from the sentencing process.
Peters' argued that District Court Judge Matthew Barrett, who had previously sentenced her, was biased against her — an assertion Barrett rejected.
"In sum, accepting Defendant's factual assertions supported by affidavit as true, the perception that I was angry and that I used harsh language regarding Defendant, and the Court of Appeals' conclusion that some of my sentencing comments were erroneously aimed at Defendant's beliefs in election fraud do not merit my disqualification," wrote Barrett. "All my comments were made during the proceedings based on information I learned during the proceedings. I am not biased against Defendant and there are no grounds to believe that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned."
Peters was sentenced by Barrett to nine years in prison in 2024, for a scheme in which she tampered with Colorado election equipment to try to prove President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being rigged.
However, earlier this month, a state appeals court threw out the sentence, finding that Barrett's reliance on Peters' pro-Trump remarks to demonstrate her lack of remorse for her crimes ran afoul of the First Amendment.
That court sent the case back down to Barrett's court, with instructions to resentence her under new criteria that will likely result in a less severe sentence.
This comes after Trump has spent months trying to jawbone the state of Colorado into granting Peters clemency — and after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has hinted he is considering it.
