Presidents can’t pardon individuals convicted of state crimes. Whether Trump understands that isn’t entirely clear.
By Steve Benen
Over the course of the past year, Donald Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to help Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who’s currently in prison for election crimes. The one step the president had not taken was to issue a pardon, since that wouldn’t make any sense.
Late Thursday, he did it anyway. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The president naturally announced the pardon by way of his social media platform, with an odd missive in which he insisted that the felonies Peters committed were actually totally fine and normal.
If anyone needs a refresher:
Peters didn’t just embrace Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories about his 2020 election defeat, she also acted on them, using someone else’s security badge to allow a Mike Lindell associate to access county election equipment.
The apparent point of the endeavor was to leak election machinery data in pursuit of a conspiratorial plot.
Not surprisingly, Peters was caught and indicted. She pleaded not guilty, but after she and her attorney struggled to present a compelling defense, a Colorado jury convicted her, finding her guilty of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant; one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation; first-degree official misconduct; violation of duty; and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
Ahead of sentencing, Peters showed no remorse. A judge ultimately sentenced her to nine years behind bars.
For the president, that’s apparently not acceptable (the accountability part, not what Peters did, that is).
In early March, Trump’s Department of Justice raised eyebrows with an unexpected move: Its civil division unexpectedly filed a brief in federal court that raised “concerns” about the criminal conviction of a former Colorado county clerk named Tina Peters.
The effort didn’t amount to much, but the president’s interest in the case didn’t fade. In May, the Republican not only called for Peters’ release from prison, he also directed the Justice Department to take “all necessary action” to help secure her freedom. As part of the same online harangue, Trump went on to describe Peters as a “Political Prisoner” and a “hostage” whose trial deserved to be seen as “a Communist persecution.”
In August, Trump threatened Colorado with “harsh measures” unless the state agreed to release Peters, whom he claimed had been “tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.” More recently, Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted the Colorado Department of Corrections, seeking to transfer Peters from a state prison to federal custody, but that didn’t work, either.
Left with no other options, the president announced a pardon for Peters.
Except that won’t work, either. Peters faced state prosecution over state crimes. She was tried and convicted in state court. She was sentenced by a state judge and sent to a state prison.
A federal pardon might make Trump feel better, but it’s also utterly irrelevant. As Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser explained in a written statement, “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. The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”
The question, however, is whether Trump knows this.
It’s possible that the president, desperate to assist an ally he’s powerless to help, issued the pardon as a symbolic gesture, grudgingly aware of the fact that it will change nothing. What’s unclear, however, is whether Trump intended this to have some force of law as Peters’ attorney continues to work to get his client out of prison. Watch this space.