The office of Colorado Governor Jared Polis affirmed this week a decision by state prison officials not to fulfill a request by the Trump administration to transfer custody of Tina Peters from the state to federal authorities.

Peters, the former Republican Mesa County clerk, is serving a 9-year prison sentence for her role in a scheme to breach the security of her own election equipment. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that she be released.

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The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons sent a letter to the Colorado Department of Corrections last month requesting that the state “initiate the transfer” of Peters to the bureau.

“Requests to transfer inmates from the Colorado Department of Corrections emanate from the state, and not from other entities. The state has not made any requests to transfer this inmate,” Shelby Wieman, a Polis spokesperson, said in a text to Newsline.

This almost exactly repeats a statement from Department of Corrections spokesperson Christian Andrade, who also wrote in an email to Newsline that “the Department is not currently seeking any transfer.”

Peters, 70, is incarcerated at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. She was convicted by a Mesa County jury on multiple charges, including four felonies, and sentenced October 2024. She was the linchpin in an effort to find evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. There is no credible evidence that the election results were compromised.

Trump cannot pardon Peters, because she was convicted on state charges. But he has called for the U.S. Department of Justice to take “all necessary action” to get her released. In August, he promised “harsh measures” if she were not let out of jail “right now.”

A bipartisan group of local election officials last week made an impassioned plea to Polis that he reject the Trump administration’s transfer request, saying failure to do so would set a dangerous precedent. Almost two weeks elapsed between the administration’s formal transfer request and the first indications that the state Department of Corrections would resist it, and Polis’ previous silence on the matter was a widespread source of indignation among election security proponents.

“His silence is deafening, and it’s also offensive,” said Molly Fitzpatrick, the Boulder County clerk, during a press conference last week.

Peters has appealed her conviction in state court and she is pursuing a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, where she argues she should be released on bond. On Sunday she asked the court for an emergency ruling, saying her 97-year-old mother is in intensive care in Virginia and she wants to travel there to visit.

Peters’ lawyer, Florida-based Peter Ticktin, calls Peters a “political prisoner.” During a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast, he suggested presidents actually do have the power to pardon people who have been convicted of state crimes and that he intends to pursue such a claim in Peters’ case up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. He also said he thinks the Trump administration should use the U.S. military to free Peters from the Colorado prison by force.