What happened in Colorado after Trump demanded Tina Peters be freed — 60 Minutes

[0:01] on the eve of the midterms president trump won't stop talking about voter fraud yet he has gone [0:07] to extraordinary lengths for an election official convicted of helping breach the very voting system [0:13] she swore to protect tina peters once mesa county colorado's top election official used her office [0:21] to pursue the president's claim never backed by evidence that rigged voting machines cost him the [0:27] 2020 election a colorado jury convicted her a judge sentenced her to nine years mr trump wanted her [0:36] freed how he went about it critics say reveals how far he'll go to advance his agenda and punish those [0:44] who stand in his way in colorado the cost of that punishment came into focus with a fire in august of [0:52] 2025. it was one of the worst wildfires in colorado history scorching nearly 138 000 acres it left [1:05] almost all of kathleen kelly's 2 000 acre ranch in ashes did you see it moving towards you yes [1:12] yeah what's that like what goes it's like watching a monster crawl across the earth this tells you about [1:19] the fire right here so it came right up to your house yeah kelly a retired school teacher says the lee [1:26] fire tore through the ranch her father built in 1949 leaving behind an apocalyptic wasteland he said it [1:34] was like hell opening up yes there are people whose whole livelihoods depend upon the buildings the [1:42] structures the things that they built over years who lost everything a lot of the damage was oil and gas [1:50] infrastructure some homes buildings it absolutely met the requirements for a federal disaster declaration [1:58] even so the trump administration denied democratic governor jared polis's plea for federal aid these [2:05] are disasters that are larger than any particular state can pay for and handle at one time we had not [2:10] been turned down for one i think it's been decades since uh that's occurred what was different this [2:16] time well you know you know obviously i'm not the one to ask right the person to ask is the white [2:22] house and and and the president what was different this time critics say was president trump's fixation [2:28] on tina peters who has long championed his false claims about rigged voting machines [2:33] this is right colorado's democratic attorney general phil weiser's office helped convict and [2:41] imprison tina peters in connection with tampering with voting machines president trump has said he [2:48] doesn't like that tina peters was sentenced and serving um this nine-year sentence so he said i'm [2:54] going to punish colorado last year as the lee fire raged across northwest colorado the president warned on [3:01] social media if she is not released i'm going to take harsh measures that was the statement the [3:07] president made and then the consequences started to follow if colorado doesn't want to lose these [3:12] benefits it might consider treating the tina peters case differently the white house insists denying [3:18] wildfire aid had nothing to do with peters spokesperson lauren biss said there's no politicization to [3:25] the president's decisions on disaster relief but the fire aid was only the beginning the trump [3:32] administration threatened to withhold food aid from the state's neediest families canceled 109 million [3:38] dollars in transportation funding and moved to dismantle the national center for atmospheric research [3:44] in boulder actions the administration described as a series of independent agency decisions the threats [3:52] were not hidden they were not subtle they were out in the open and were fighting back so you were [3:57] suing the president on what basis the president using bullying using threats to take away our [4:05] sovereignty president doesn't get to tell us what to do that's for us to decide so when the president [4:10] posts free tina peters what does that say to you i don't get it the president appears to think that [4:18] there's some injustice here she was elected by her county to uphold the elections instead she attacked [4:26] the elections from within colorado's democratic secretary of state jenna griswold who oversees state [4:33] elections said peters helped an election conspiracy theorist pose as a county employee gave him access to [4:41] secure voting equipment and allowed him to copy its proprietary software tina peters ordered that [4:48] her video surveillance cameras be turned off and then took images of the voting equipment and shared [4:54] it with a network of election deniers griswold discovered the breach when copies of the data [5:00] surfaced at a conference devoted to claims of election fraud where peters spoke something didn't [5:06] seem right in our county what was harmed by her actions voting equipment confidence in colorado [5:15] elections and american elections and election workers you let go of me peters was charged with [5:23] obstruction for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the voting machine breach [5:30] obstruction she was indicted a month later on 10 criminal counts which elevated her standing among [5:38] election skeptics even higher she was all smiles on her way to court in 2024 after a two-week trial [5:47] a jury found her guilty of state charges three misdemeanors four felonies you are no hero [5:55] you abused your position and you're a charlatan mesa county district court judge matthew barrett [6:01] sentenced peters to nearly nine years in prison i'm convinced you would do it all over again if you [6:06] could you're as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen matt crane who leads the colorado [6:13] county clerk's association says peter's actions and the president's support for her have fueled [6:19] distrust of election workers making them targets of threats and intimidation as election officials [6:26] we don't have the kind of megaphone that the president of the united states has he has much [6:29] more ability to spread disinformation and lies about our election process than we do to spread the [6:36] truth about what really happens and you are a republican i am a republican yes sir this is not a partisan [6:41] issue for you this is not a partisan issue but in may of 2025 president trump made it one he called [6:49] peters a hostage being held in a colorado prison by the democrats for political reasons he also called [6:56] her a patriot i feel like we're in allison wonderland when someone breaks the law they're not a patriot [7:03] when someone seeks to undermine the integrity of our elections lying about it that's not a patriotic act [7:10] that's undermining the core the foundation of a democratic republic president trump issued a [7:17] pardon for peters but it had no legal effect since she was convicted on state not federal charges he [7:24] puts tina in jail for nine years president trump continued to build up peters while tearing in to [7:30] colorado governor jared polis the governor of colorado is a weak and pathetic man president trump is [7:39] known for using colorful language he called you the sleazebag governor of colorado i mean whatever [7:45] he wants to call me uh is fine he called you a sleazebag he called tina peters a hostage uh it's not a [7:53] fair characterization of of tina peters governor polis said he fully agreed with the jury's conviction of tina [8:00] peters but felt her sentence was too long look she should have gotten a year two years three years when [8:07] she got close to nine years i was shocked many people were shocked in may after peters had served [8:14] less than two years mr polis commuted her sentence and set her free the county clerks said they were [8:21] furious and disgusted it was a complete betrayal of the election community here so why do you think [8:27] governor polis commuted her sentence i mean as simple as it is he bent the knee to president trump you've [8:33] heard all the blowback from your critics they say that you caved to the president did you no this [8:41] would have been much easier to do had the president never mentioned her this was a non-violent elderly [8:46] first-time offender who got a longer sentence than she should have straightforward case but the [8:51] governor's critics question his timing the courts were in the middle of reconsidering her sentence [8:57] when mr polis stepped in the legal process was still ongoing so why did you intervene i had what [9:05] i needed to to act but why why jump in before the the court had rendered its final decision well i mean [9:12] look the there is no timeline for commutations and pardons whenever i make up my mind but when it's made [9:18] up it's made up there's no reason to delay you said you believe and as you put it in the value of mercy [9:24] and redemption but you said that that certainly also means taking responsibility has tina peters [9:31] shown that she's taken responsibility for what she did i hope that she understands that what she did [9:37] was wrong she wishes presumably that she did it in a legal way rather than an illegal way but since [9:43] her release everybody give tina hug peters is back on the election denial circuit so many people just [9:50] want to hear what you have to say she attended a fraud fighter summit in las vegas tina thank you so [9:55] much we all salute you and it's good to see you out of that hellhole went on alex jones's podcast [10:01] and met with president trump at the white house when we met with tina peters in august she was [10:08] unapologetic and argued the ends justify the means the bottom line is can people trust these machines [10:16] can they really trust these machines my answer is no show me the evidence that the paper ballot [10:24] results differed from the computerized results well my place is not to show um you know pick out [10:32] different things of what what could have happened mine was i was authorized to protect the election [10:40] records according to 52 usc uh 70201 which is a federal mandate to preserve election records more [10:48] than 60 lawsuits were filed alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election and they were either dismissed or [10:55] withdrawn there were multiple investigations by federal state and local investigators many of them [11:02] republican none of them found evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election [11:09] is it possible that you're wrong you know i'm not going to debate about what's happening in um across [11:19] the country in that regard all i know is that i was the election official in charge of preserving [11:26] election records and those election records were wiped from the system we checked the wiping she [11:32] speaks of turned out to be part of a routine system update of voting machines across the state [11:38] county clerks association director matt crane a republican says all election results were preserved [11:45] it's kind of like the updates all of us do for our phones that's correct that's correct only a lot more [11:51] secure and a lot more intentional tina peters has said that she was just protecting election data [11:57] yes what's wrong with what she said the fact that every record that was required under federal and [12:02] state law for retention her staff had already backed up you took an oath i did to do this job yes [12:09] why turn off the security cameras it was not against the law you gave an outsider fake credentials [12:18] okay did you break the law did i oh you're asking me if i broke the law they said i broke the law [12:27] you were prosecuted by a republican district attorney doesn't matter in a republican doesn't matter what [12:34] makes you think your conviction was unjust because i do believe these machines can be breached you plan [12:41] to run for office i plan to do i'm a very i'm a woman of faith um i believe that what god brings [12:49] you to he'll see you through and i'm willing to to do whatever needs to be done to save this country [12:58] tina peters got out of prison and delayed federal funds are flowing to colorado again 47 million dollars [13:07] of water projects was unfrozen also last month the trump administration approved federal wildfire aid for the [13:15] state [13:24] you [13:26] you