2026-06-01T14:48:03.408Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/tina-peters-prison-release
- 因入侵选举系统以支持唐纳德·特朗普总统虚假的选举欺诈指控而定罪的蒂娜·彼得斯于周一获释。
- 尽管遭到两党谴责以及其所在政党的谴责，科罗拉多州民主党州长仍将她的刑期减半。
- 彼得斯仍在散布选举阴谋论，在对定罪提出上诉的同时坚称自己无罪。
本文由AI生成摘要，经CNN编辑审核。
监狱官员证实，选举否认者蒂娜·彼得斯周一从科罗拉多州一所监狱获释，就在该州民主党州长批准一项引发争议的减刑令、将她的刑期减半数周后。
这位共和党籍前梅萨县书记员于2024年被判州重罪，罪名是与其他选举否认者合谋入侵该县的选举系统，以期证明特朗普总统毫无根据的2020年选民欺诈指控。
她最初被判处近9年监禁，上月科罗拉多州州长贾里德·波利斯将其减至4年半。得益于科罗拉多州的假释政策，她最终实际服刑约1年8个月。
多年来，她的遭遇已成为选举阴谋运动的集结口号。而在周一之前，她是最后一名因特朗普盟友在全美各地破坏2020年选举结果的各种行为而入狱的人。
将于明年任期结束的民主党州长波利斯于5月15日宣布减刑。
州长主要以科罗拉多州上诉法院最近的一项裁决为减刑理由，该裁决认定审判法官侵犯了彼得斯的第一修正案权利，不当惩罚了她关于2020年选举的受保护言论。但他还以一系列关于彼得斯案件的误导性和虚假言论为自己的决定辩护。
“这是一个 straightforward 的决定，因为在审查了事实并阅读了上诉法院的裁决后，我认为她的刑期实在太长了，”波利斯周日在Substack的一篇贴文中写道，他在文中谴责了彼得斯的罪行。
两党范围内的选举官员、州检察官和议员都谴责波利斯提前释放彼得斯。科罗拉多州民主党甚至对他提出谴责，称此次减刑开创了“危险且令人失望的先例”。
彼得斯提前出狱标志着2020年选举否认者运动以及特朗普的一次胜利时刻，特朗普长期以来就彼得斯的监禁问题对科罗拉多州施加压力。波利斯表示，他的决定并未受到特朗普行动的影响——这些行动包括关闭科罗拉多州的一个气候实验室、拒绝联邦救灾援助申请、否决科罗拉多州的一个水利项目以及撤回联邦交通资金。
特朗普去年象征性地为彼得斯颁发了联邦赦免，但她仍因州级指控被关押在狱中。彼得斯正在对定罪提出上诉，她坚称自己无罪。
CNN已联系彼得斯的律师寻求置评。
从科罗拉多州普韦布洛的拉维斯塔惩教中心走出后不久，彼得斯就出现在特朗普盟友史蒂夫·班农的播客节目中，再次宣扬早已被揭穿的美国选举阴谋论。
“我知道民主党人会作弊，没有人真正在解决这个问题，而我在监狱里度过的时光就是对我揭露选举机器可以篡改选票的报复，”彼得斯说。
她指的是早已被揭穿的论断，即多米尼选举系统公司的投票机可以通过欺诈手段篡改选票。这一主张是2020年特朗普盟友毫无根据地声称存在系统性选举作弊的核心内容。而这正是她在2021年入侵该县选举设备时试图证明的内容。
“我仍在为洗刷我的罪名而斗争，以揭露他们如此针对我的真相，”彼得斯说。
在服刑期间，彼得斯通过盟友在社交媒体上保持活跃，并继续散布关于2020年选举合法性的阴谋论，特朗普在那次选举中输给了乔·拜登。
但在向波利斯提交的宽大申请中，她首次承认了自己的不当行为。她表示：“四年前我犯了一个错误。我在允许他人进入县选举设备时误导了国务卿。那是错误的。今后，我将确保我的行为始终符合法律。”
在给彼得斯的宽大赦免信中，波利斯表示她的声明“表明了你对自己罪行承担责任的态度”。波利斯在减刑当天接受CNN采访时还表示，“她也通过这份声明表达了悔意”。
但她的律师彼得·蒂金在最近接受CNN采访时表示，他并不这么认为。
“我不认为她表达了任何悔恨和自责，”蒂金说。“她基本上只是承认自己本可以做得更好。真正感到悔恨的人很难这样说。遗憾和悔恨是有区别的。她本可以采取一种不会真正欺骗任何人的方式，而那才是她的错误所在。”
基于此，彼得斯和蒂金在获得减刑后仍在攻击选举官员。彼得斯最近在X平台上发帖称，科罗拉多州国务卿、民主党人耶娜·格里斯沃尔德正在进行“掩盖”，蒂金则表示她应该被判数十年监禁。（格里斯沃尔德表示她始终依法办事，并坚决反对释放彼得斯。）
“我永远不会退缩，永远不会放弃，永远不会屈服，”彼得斯在5月22日写道。“我将始终站在我们选举中的真相、透明和公平一边。”
本文已更新补充最新进展。
CNN记者杰里米·赫布和爱德华-艾萨克·多弗雷对本文亦有贡献。
Election denier Tina Peters released from prison
2026-06-01T14:48:03.408Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/tina-peters-prison-release
- Tina Peters, convicted of breaching voting systems to support President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims, was released from prison Monday.
- Colorado’s Democratic governor had cut her sentence in half despite bipartisan condemnation and censure from his own party.
- Peters continues spreading election conspiracy theories and maintains her innocence while appealing her convictions.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
Election denier Tina Peters was released from a Colorado prison Monday, prison officials confirmed, weeks after the state’s Democratic governor granted a controversial commutation that cut her sentence in half.
The Republican former Mesa County clerk was convicted in 2024 of state felonies for conspiring with fellow election deniers to breach her county’s voting systems in hopes of proving President Donald Trump’s baseless 2020 voter-fraud claims.
She was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison, which was reduced last month by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to 4 ½ years. She ultimately served about one year and eight months in prison, due in part to Colorado’s parole policies.
Over the years, her plight has become a rallying cry in the election conspiracy movement. And until Monday, she was the last remaining person behind bars in connection with the varying efforts by Trump allies across the country to undermine the 2020 results.
Polis, a Democrat whose term ends next year, announced on May 15 that he was reducing Peters’ sentence.
The governor primarily justified his decision by citing a recent Colorado appeals court ruling that found the trial judge violated Peters’ First Amendment rights by improperly punishing Peters for her protected speech about the 2020 election. But he also defended his decision with a series of misleading and false claims about Peters’ case.
“It was a straightforward decision because, after reviewing the facts, and reading the Appeals Court decision, I concluded that her sentence was simply too long,” Polis wrote Sunday in a Substack post, where he condemned Peters’ crimes.
A bipartisan array of election officials, state prosecutors and lawmakers has condemned Polis for releasing Peters early. He was even censured by the Colorado Democratic Party, which said the commutation set a “dangerous and disappointing precedent.”
Peters’ early release marks a triumphant moment for the 2020 election denier movement and for Trump, who waged a long pressure campaign against Colorado over her incarceration. Polis said his decision wasn’t influenced by Trump’s actions — which included closing a Colorado-based climate lab, denying federal disaster assistance requests, vetoing a Colorado water project and pulling federal transportation funds.
Trump granted a symbolic federal pardon to Peters last year, but she had remained in prison under state charges. Peters is appealing her convictions, and she maintains her innocence.
CNN has reached out to Peters’ lawyers seeking comment.
Shortly after walking out of the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado, Peters appeared on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s podcast, where she doubled down on debunked conspiracy theories about US elections.
“I know that the Democrats are going to cheat, and no one’s really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for and that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped,” Peters said.
She was referring to the long-debunked assertion that Dominion Voting Systems’ machines can fraudulently flip votes. This claim was at the heart of baseless claims of systemic cheating against Trump in 2020. And it’s what she was tying to prove when she breached her county’s equipment in 2021.
“I still have a fight to clear my name and bring out the truth of why they came after me the way they did,” Peters said.
Throughout her incarceration, Peters has stayed active on social media through allies and has continued spreading conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
But in her clemency application submitted to Polis, she acknowledged wrongdoing for the first time. She said: “I made a mistake four years ago. I misled the secretary of state when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong. Going forward, I will make sure that my actions always follow the law.”
In a letter to Peters granting clemency, Polis said her statement “demonstrates taking responsibility for your crimes.” Polis also told CNN in an interview on the day of the commutation that “she’s also expressed contrition now with this statement.”
But her lawyer Peter Ticktin told CNN in a recent interview that he doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think she indicated that she was feeling contrition and remorse. She basically was admitting to the fact that she could have done it better,” Ticktin said. “It’s very hard to be someone who has real contrition. There’s a difference between regret and contrition. It could have been done in such a way where she didn’t actually deceive anybody, and that was her mistake.”
In that vein, Peters and Ticktin have continued attacking election officials after her clemency. Peters recently posted on X that Colorado’s secretary of state, Democrat Jena Griswold, was engaged in a “cover up” and Ticktin said she deserves decades in prison. (Griswold has said she always upheld the law, and she staunchly opposed Peters’ release.)
“I will never back down, I will never give up, and I will never give in,” Peters wrote on May 22. “I will always stand for truth, transparency, and fairness in our elections.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.