Trump Illegally Tries to Pardon a Supporter Convicted of Tampering With Voting Machines Under State Law

Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Tina Peters, who was convicted of tampering with voting machines in an attempt to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Most reports have been dismissive of this pardon, describing it as “symbolic,” since Peters was convicted of a state crime in Colorado, not a federal crime.

A report from Colorado Newsline (republished by News from the States, a progressive-leaning nonprofit focused on state-level news) may be more accurate in assessing the pseudo-pardon’s potential for mischief:

The document, which appears to be dated Dec. 5, says it grants “a full and unconditional pardon” for “those offenses she has or may have committed or taken part in related to election integrity and security during the period January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021.”

The pardon applies to Peters’ conviction on state charges, [her lawyer Peter] Ticktin said. The charges related to Peters’ role in a 2021 security breach when she was the Mesa County clerk. …

“She didn’t commit any federal offenses,” Ticktin said in an interview with Newsline. “The only thing that she could be pardoned on are state offenses, because that’s all that are out there.” …

Ticktin applied to the Trump administration last month for a pardon. He followed up last week with a letter to Trump 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.” …

Ultimately he expects the matter to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, where a 6-3 conservative majority has sided with Trump at an unusually high rate.

It is significant that Trump granted this pardon when Peters has only been charged with state crimes, and that he did so at the request of a lawyer who insisted it overturns her state-level conviction. It’s a legal Hail Mary that is unlikely to work, but the mere attempt is an abuse of power.

This is consistent with the Trump administration’s approach on many other issues: assert maximum power far beyond its proper limits—and just roll the dice, hoping the other branches will back down or the Supreme Court’s conservatives will allow the abuse. Win or lose, the Trump administration will never exercise any self-restraint in its claims to power.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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