Trump Slammed ‘Radical Left’ For Jailing Election Official — Here’s What The Republican DA Who Prosecuted Her Had to Say

Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP

President Donald Trump dropped a wild screed on his Truth Social platform on Monday night, calling for the release of Tina Peters – the former Mesa County, Colorado, election official convicted and jailed in connection with trying to breach county voting systems. In his post, Trump called Peters’s conviction a “Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020.”

Peters, however, was actually prosecuted by the Republican District Attorney for the Twenty-First Judicial District of Colorado, Dan Rubinstein. Rubinstein has made several statements over the years about the case and both the heat and support he has received from fellow Republicans for prosecuting Peters, who was sentenced to 9 years behind bars in October of 2024.

Peters’s conviction stemmed from her participation in a plot to break into election machines under her supervision and copy data from them to prove fraud — instead voter information from the machines appeared online in August 2021, published in part by QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theorists like Ron Watkins.

In September of 2024, Rubinstein spoke to Colorado Public Radio’s Ryan Warner for a lengthy discussion about the prosecution.

At one point in the conversation, Warner asks, “I noted at the beginning that you are a Republican, and you know this notion that the election was stolen, this false notion has really implanted itself in some parts of the Republican party. I guess I’m just curious what your sense is of the GOP right now and maybe your own Republican identity, given that this rather pernicious story has rooted itself.”

Rubinstein replied by noting that a lot “of things that are going on were because Mike Lindell is getting sued by Dominion” and argued that Peters’s connection to Lindell and her belief in “these myths about election security” are because Lindell is trying “to get out of a civil suit.” Rubinstein added:

But as far as it relates to my identity, I’m the sort of Republican that believes that you respect law enforcement. You don’t kick at cops, you follow the law. And if the law says you don’t lie to people to manipulate their decisions, then that’s a crime. And if you go about things the right way. The law is to be respected, which means you go to court and you ask a judge to intervene and do something. So I have no qualms about taking this case and charging another fellow Republican. We are all held to the same standard, and certainly elected officials should be held not just to the same standard, but to a higher standard, and we’re supposed to be setting the example of how to behave.

Video was later released of Peters trying to kick a police officer as they executed a warrant to search her. Warner ends the interview asking, “ Before we go, is there something you want people to understand about this case that maybe they miss?”

“What I would like is for everybody to understand that there is nothing political about this case to me. To me, this is simply: an elected official broke the law, and an elected official is being held accountable for breaking the law. Obviously, I’m not looking to charge people in my own party,” Rubinstein replies, adding:

I’m also not looking to charge people in the other party. That’s not what public safety is all about. And if you are having politics enter into your thought process in really any of the public safety elected positions, you’re doing it wrong. If you are having politics enter into your job as sheriff or your job as coroner or your job as district attorney, you are not equally applying the law.

Trump attacked Colorado’s attorney general, a Democrat, in his post, which read in full:

Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters, a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud. Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020. The same Democrat Party that flies to El Salvador to try to free an MS-13 Terrorist, is cruelly imprisoning, perhaps for life, a grandmother whose brave and heroic son gave his life for America. Colorado must end this unjust incarceration of an innocent American. I am hereby directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this “hostage” being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons. FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!

Other Colorado Republicans were also quick to jump on board, like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who shared the post and added, “I am glad to see President Trump address this situation after I sent a formal request to the FBI to look into the sentencing and treatment of Tina Peters. Nine years in prison while Jena Griswold and her entire office avoids any type of legal accountability for releasing voting machine passwords makes Coloradans believe the justice system is rigged. I know FBI Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino will get the answers we deserve to hear!”