Trump says jailed US election denier a 'patriot', demands release

Donald Trump called Thursday for the release of a Colorado official jailed on charges linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, as he renews his attacks on the US voting system.
FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, threatening to take harsh measures if she is not freed from her nine-year prison sentence.
Peters, a former official in Colorado's Mesa County, was sentenced in October 2024 for allowing an unauthorized Trump supporter to access confidential voting information several months after the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
The man was seeking to prove election fraud as part of a conspiracy theory touted by Trump that the vote was rigged -- despite multiple courts having upheld that there were no major issues.
Trump's demand echoed a similar post he made on Truth Social in early May, in which he called her a hostage being held in prison by Democrats for political reasons.
Peters is jailed under state charges, making her ineligible for a presidential pardon from Trump.
The 79-year-old Republican has continued to spread a string of misinformation about US elections.
On Monday, he announced a fresh assault on mail-in balloting -- a method used by nearly a third of Americans that Trump has wrongly claimed is linked to election fraud.
He also promised to bring honesty to next year's midterm elections, without giving further details, and has teased the idea of running for a third term in 2028 -- something barred by the US Constitution.

(2025/08/22 18:07)