By Brad Brooks
April 2 (Reuters) - A Colorado appeals court on Thursday overturned the nine-year prison sentence, but not the conviction, given to Tina Peters, a former county clerk convicted of tampering with voting machines in her pursuit of claims the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, as Trump repeatedly and falsely claimed.
Trump has taken up the case of Peters, a fellow Republican, in recent months and put pressure on state courts and Colorado Governor Jared Polis,
a Democrat, to free her, saying she is a political prisoner. Polis last month signaled he may be willing to consider clemency for Peters.
A three-judge appeals court panel ordered a lower court to resentence Peters, who remains jailed. The panel upheld her conviction on all seven counts, which include attempts to influence a public servant and violation of duty, among others.
In its ruling, the panel said the lower court judge Matthew Barrett improperly punished Peters based on her protected speech - her claims of election fraud, which she maintained throughout her 2024 trial. The panel cited several things Barrett said at trial, including calling Peters a "charlatan" who continued to peddle "snake oil that's been proven to be junk time and time again."
"The trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing. Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud," the panel wrote.
The panel gave no suggestion of what Peters' sentence should be.
Peters was indicted in 2022 following an election security breach at her office that led to voting equipment passwords being posted on a right-wing blog. She denied wrongdoing.
Two attorneys for Peters, Peter Ticktin and John Case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump pardoned Peters in December in a move that was considered symbolic since Peters is not in federal custody. The Colorado appeals court panel, in its ruling, wrote that a president's federal pardon powers do not reach state offenses.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; editing by Donna Bryson and Chris Reese)
