Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk who is serving a Colorado prison sentence, has applied for a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to her lawyer.

Peters was convicted for her role in a scheme to breach the security of her own election equipment in 2021, part of an effort to find evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

An application for a presidential pardon was filed “about two weeks ago,” Peter Ticktin, her Florida-based attorney, told Newsline Wednesday.

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Presidential pardons are universally understood to apply only to federal cases. Peters was convicted on state charges. But Ticktin argues that the Constitution’s references to the United States apply to the individual states as well as the country as a whole.

“So when the Constitution speaks of the United States in terms of the power of pardon, they’re speaking of the states and the crimes that are done against the states, as well as any that would be against the federal government,” Ticktin said during a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Newsline has not been able to verify that the Trump administration has received a clemency petition from Peters. A request for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice had not been answered by the time of publication.

The Colorado attorney general’s office was not aware that Peters had submitted a petition for a pardon, according to a spokesperson.

“One of the most basic principles of our constitution is that states have independent sovereignty and manage our own criminal justice systems without interference from the federal government,” Phil Weiser, the Democratic attorney general, said in a statement. “The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent in American law, would be an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires, and will not hold up.”

Ticktin acknowledges that the question of state-level presidential pardon power has never come up in American legal cases. But he pointed to reasons the Peters request might gain momentum.

“I can tell you that there’s one lawyer in the White House, that works in the White House, that understood the argument and realized that it was viable,” Ticktin said.

He declined to identify the lawyer or specify the lawyer’s role.

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But Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, whose job it is to oversee federal clemency petitions, has expressed sympathy with Peters.

“We’ve been fighting for two months to figure out a path on Tina Peters,” he told Bannon during a Nov. 10 podcast appearance.

The previous day, Martin announced on social media the mass pardon of Trump allies who allegedly were involved in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In response to the question, “Where is Tina Peters?!?!?” Martin replied, “We are working on it!”

Trump has repeatedly demanded that Colorado officials release Peters, threatening “harsh measures” if they refuse. Trump posted his latest call for Peters’ release Wednesday.

Trump has been willing to challenge other assumptions about foundational law, such as with his rejection of birthright citizenship.

The pardon question should ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ticktin said. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and has sided with Trump at a rate that court observers say is unusual.

“It doesn’t make any sense for the president not to give this pardon to me, because all that could happen is that his powers could be defined to be larger, in that he would be able to pardon state offenses as well as federal. If I lose, if the Supreme Court doesn’t agree with me, well then he’s no worse off, right?” Ticktin said.

Peters, 70, is incarcerated at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. The Republican was convicted by a Mesa County jury and sentenced in October 2024. There is no credible evidence that the 2020 election results were compromised or that her prosecution, which was led by a Republican district attorney, was flawed.

She 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. The federal Bureau of Prisons has requested that state officials transfer custody of Peters to federal authorities. Governor Jared Polis rebuffed the request.