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Colorado governor commutes Tina Peters’ sentence as Trump posts ‘FREE TINA!’
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Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday commuted the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — the former election clerk convicted in connection with a 2021 voting equipment breach case that became a flashpoint in the election integrity fight — drawing immediate backlash from Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and praise from President Donald Trump, who posted «FREE TINA!» on Truth Social.
Polis announced clemency for 44 individuals Friday, including 35 pardons and nine commutations, according to the governor’s office. Peters was among those granted a commutation reducing her prison sentence and granting parole effective June 1, 2026.
«The Clemency power is a serious responsibility, and not one that I take lightly,» Polis said in a statement announcing the clemency actions.
«This power has the ability to change lives – help grant a second chance for someone who has made grave mistakes – and it comes with great consideration, and sometimes even controversy,» he added.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES PARDON FOR COLORADO CLERK: ‘SIMPLY WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT OUR ELECTIONS WERE FAIR’
Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters speaks at a rally on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, Colorado, on April 5, 2022. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post)
The move immediately prompted a blistering response from Griswold, who accused Polis of legitimizing «the election denial movement.»
«This clemency grant to Tina Peters is an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country,» Griswold said in a statement Friday.
«The Governor’s actions today will validate and embolden the election denial movement, and leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come,» she added.
FEDERAL JUDGE REFUSES TO RELEASE PRO-TRUMP CLERK CONVICTED IN 2020 ELECTION SCHEME

Mesa County Clerk and Colorado Republican candidate for secretary of state Tina Peters will receive a pardon from President Donald Trump. Peters is serving a nine-year sentence after a state jury convicted her of participating in a scheme to breach the Mesa County voting systems. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
According to the executive order signed Friday, Peters’ sentence was commuted from 8 years and 3 months to 4 years and 4.5 months. The order grants her parole effective June 1, 2026, with conditions to be set by the Colorado Parole Board.
«Tina M. Peters be and hereby is granted a limited commutation such that her total sentence, inclusive of time in County Jail and the Department of Corrections, is commuted to 4 years and 4.5 months, and that she is granted parole effective June 1, 2026,» the order states.
The executive order also explicitly noted that the clemency action «shall not in any way affect the underlying criminal conviction.»
TRUMP PARDONS RUDY GIULIANI, MARK MEADOWS, SIDNEY POWELL, OTHERS INVOLVED IN 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE SAGA

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ state is allowing taxpayers to keep their federal deductions on overtime this year, but future years’ federal tax savings are going to be clawed back for state revenue. (AP)
Polis wrote in the order that «the constitutional and statutory conditions for granting this clemency petition have been satisfied, and granting this commutation is in the interest of justice.»
According to the executive order, Peters was convicted in 2024 of three counts of attempt to influence a public servant, along with conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation – cause liability, official misconduct, violation of duty elections and failure to comply with secretary of state requirements.
She had been sentenced to 8 years and 3 months in Department of Corrections custody, along with 6 months in county jail. Her mandatory release date had previously been listed in 2033, while her estimated parole eligibility date had been in 2028.
BIDEN SETS RECORD WITH FIRST-TERM CLEMENCY GRANTS, HERE’S HOW OTHERS PRESIDENTS RANK

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks with members of the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg)
Griswold’s office said Peters’ actions stemmed from a 2021 breach involving Mesa County voting equipment.
«In 2021, then-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters compromised her county’s voting equipment trying to prove conspiracies,» Griswold’s office said in a release Friday.
The office said Griswold responded by decertifying the county’s voting equipment, working with Mesa County commissioners to remove Peters from election oversight and appointing a former Republican secretary of state to oversee the election process.
Griswold’s office also said Peters’ actions cost Mesa County «nearly one million dollars in replacement equipment.»
The secretary of state’s office noted that on April 2, 2026, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Peters’ convictions while ordering that she be re-sentenced by the district court.
Trump weighed in on the commutation Friday afternoon with a brief Truth Social post reading simply: «FREE TINA!»
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Peters became a nationally known figure among 2020 election skeptics following the Mesa County voting equipment breach controversy and subsequent criminal prosecution.
Friday’s clemency order immediately deepened political divisions surrounding one of the highest-profile criminal prosecutions in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
elections disputes, elections, governors, elections state and local, secretary of state
INTERNACIONAL
El Salvador recibe de la ONU equipo para detectar documentos fraudulentos en controles fronterizos
El Salvador incorporó un nuevo dispositivo de verificación documental entregado por la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito (UNODC) para reforzar los mecanismos nacionales de identificación de documentos de viaje e identidad fraudulentos. La entrega se realizó en el marco de un proyecto de cooperación internacional, informó el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores este viernes.
La ceremonia oficial tuvo lugar en Viena, Austria, y fue organizada por el Laboratorio y Servicios Científicos (LSS) de la UNODC como parte del proyecto “Fortalecimiento de las capacidades para la investigación de la escena del crimen y el examen de documentos de seguridad en América Latina y el Caribe”, financiado por el Gobierno de Canadá. El evento reunió a especialistas en análisis documental y gestión fronteriza de 16 países de América Latina y el Caribe.
De entre los participantes hay otros países centroamericanos: Guatemala, Costa Ria, Honduras, Panamá y República Dominicana. Cada uno de los países participantes recibió un equipo de verificación documental para mejorar la detección y el reconocimiento de documentos fraudulentos en los puntos de control fronterizo y en otras instancias de verificación de identidad, según el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.
“El objetivo del evento fue fortalecer las capacidades nacionales para la detección y el examen de documentos de viaje e identidad fraudulentos, mediante una capacitación especializada en técnicas avanzadas de verificación documental y el uso operativo de dispositivos de verificación de nivel intermedio”, expone la Cancillería salvadoreña.

Durante el evento, se ofreció una capacitación especializada en técnicas avanzadas de verificación documental, enfocada en el uso operativo de dispositivos de nivel intermedio. Representantes de la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) de El Salvador participaron en el entrenamiento técnico impartido por la UNODC en Viena, donde completaron el proceso de formación y recibieron el equipo correspondiente.
En abril de 2026, La Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) informó que en aras del fortalecimiento de la infraestructura limítrofe, El Salvador amplió sus opciones de control migratorio con la apertura de un nuevo punto fronterizo en el cantón El Coco, situado en el distrito de Chalchuapa, departamento de Santa Ana.
Desde el viernes 13 de marzo de 2026, quedó establecido este punto de control que conecta de manera directa con el municipio de Jerez, en el departamento de Jutiapa, Guatemala, lo que permite el tránsito debidamente regulado de personas entre ambas naciones hermanas.

Además, el país lleva dos años desde que la DGME, junto con el respaldo del gobierno de los Estados Unidos, inauguró el Centro Nacional de Análisis de Pasajeros (CENAP). Esta unidad especializada en inteligencia migratoria y perfilamiento de pasajeros facilitó el ingreso seguro al país en vuelos internacionales a través de una sede operativa conjunta.
El CENAP nació como una iniciativa conjunta entre la Dirección de Migración y la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP) para agilizar el ingreso al territorio de forma segura mediante herramientas tecnológicas sofisticadas y equipos de alto nivel.
Esto permitió perfilar y rastrear información de ciudadanos nacionales y extranjeros con destino a El Salvador, examinar ciclos migratorios de perfiles sospechosos, detectar posibles amenazas a la seguridad nacional, identificar personas de riesgo, combatir redes criminales de tráfico de personas, gestionar alertas internacionales y recopilar estadísticas, entre otras acciones.
corresponsal:Desde San Salvador, El Salvador
INTERNACIONAL
Trump’s White House ballroom foes face ‘very tough argument’ at Supreme Court, legal experts say
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President Donald Trump could win the legal fight over his planned White House ballroom, say two legal experts who believe the U.S. the Supreme Court could end the case without weighing in on the underlying constitutional issue.
In a lengthy social media post Friday, Trump vowed to take the fight over his White House ballroom to the Supreme Court after the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court order blocking above-ground construction. In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court ruled that the project cannot move forward without Congressional approval.
Trump pointed to the dissent written by Judge Neomi Rao, appointed by Trump in his first term, as grounds for appealing the decision to Supreme Court. Rao argued that the plantiffs, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, lack legal standing in the case.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation built its case for legal standing around Alison Hoagland, a member who lives near the White House and regularly visits President’s Park. Hoagland said she visits the area about once a month and argued that the proposed ballroom’s size and design would diminish her enjoyment of the area by overshadowing the White House and weakening its aesthetic.
TRUMP SAYS WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM RULING JEOPARDIZES LIVES OF FUTURE PRESIDENTS, VOWS SUPREME COURT APPEAL
President Donald Trump has overseen ongoing construction of the underground military fortress that is going to be below the $400 million privately funded East Wing ballroom. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
But according to Rao, the National Trust did not establish the kind of injury necessary to invoke the courts’ authority to block the project.
«The district court elevated the aesthetic displeasure of a single passerby over the government’s security interests in the ballroom and the security risks of leaving an open construction site at the President’s home and office,» Rao wrote.
Former Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli agreed, telling Fox News Digital the National Trust could face a particularly difficult hurdle on standing at the Supreme Court. He noted that, while Congress created the National Trust, the group still must show that its lawsuit is germaine to its interests.
«While they do have ownership of some properties, the President’s Park, where the White House East Ballroom is, is not one of them,» Kambli said. «And I think that’s going to be a very tough argument to sustain, especially with the Supreme Court, that’s more likely to agree with Rao than they are the [circuit court] majority, given the makeup of the Supreme Court, and the fact that the Supreme Court is very strict on standing.»
OBAMA JUDGE RULES ON EFFORT TO BLOCK AMERICA 250 EVENTS AT WH AND LINCOLN MEMORIAL

President Donald Trump displays a rendering of his proposed $250 million White House ballroom as he meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 22, 2025. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Kambli also suggested that the National Trust faces a strong hurdle in proving it has standing based on aesthetic injury because it would have to prove it actually uses the space where the ballroom is being built
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«Normally, aesthetic standing requires that you intend to use it,» Kambli said. «So, for instance, if you’re planning to be visiting the East Ballroom — and even this is kind of a stretch — that’s one thing, but if you’re someone on the outside that just passes it by, that’s a little tougher.»
A similar standing issue surfaced earlier in July when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama-appointed judge, rejected a lawsuit seeking to block the America 250 UFC event at the White House. He ruled that the plaintiffs had not met the standard of aesthetic harm to establish standing.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, said he expects Trump to prevail on appeal as well, based on the standing issue.
«Under Supreme Court precedent, you cannot bring a claim, you cannot bring a lawsuit, until and unless you can demonstrate a concrete, actual injury,» Spakovsky told Fox News Digital. «The idea that a passerby, who claims she will be aesthetically injured because of what she sees at the White House, has an actual injury is absurd, and obviously, and clearly defies that precedent.»
If the Supreme Court takes the case, it could resolve it without deciding whether the administration had the legal authority to build the ballroom in the first place.
TRUMP WARNS JUDGE AGAINST SACRIFICING NATIONAL SECURITY BY BLOCKING WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM, DRONE BASE

President Donald Trump holds design for a proposed White House ballroom while speaking to reporters. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg)
«The Supreme Court won’t rule on the substantive issue if it can dismiss the case based on a lack of standing by the plaintiffs,» von Spakovsky said. «I also don’t know of anyone else who could establish standing to bring a lawsuit. Perhaps Congress could collectively, but the chances of that happening are very slim given the partisan divides in both the House and Senate.»
The National Trust argued in its lawsuit that federal law requires Congress to approve new construction on federal property in Washington, D.C., while the administration says existing law already gives the president authority to make alterations and improvements to federal property, including the White House.
Abhishek agreed with Rao’s reasoning that the terms «alteration» and «improvement» should be understood in their ordinary real-property sense.
«For instance, if I have an extension to my house, it doesn’t become a new house,» Abhishek said. «It’s the same house, but that’s an improvement done on the house. Or if I tear down some walls and then just create an open living space in my like between my living room and my kitchen, that’s also not a new house at that point.
«It’s the same house, but there was an alteration or an improvement done, so if you’re using real property terms, then it’s pretty clear how how the statutory authority would make sense,» Abhishek continued.
white house, judiciary, supreme court, donald trump, federal courts, law, politics
INTERNACIONAL
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