Overview
- Judges heard arguments on Peters’ multi-issue appeal, which targets trial rulings, jury instructions, sentencing, claimed federal-duty immunity, and the effect of President Trump’s pardon.
- State attorneys told the court that the Constitution limits the president’s pardon power to federal offenses, while Peters’ lawyers asked the court to recognize the pardon and order her release.
- Peters is serving a nine-year sentence for allowing outsider Conan Hayes into secure election systems with another person’s badge, after which hard-drive copies surfaced and partial passwords appeared online.
- Her team argues she acted to preserve election records and that exclusions at trial and comments at sentencing violated her constitutional rights, including a claim that a thrown-out contempt case tainted the sentence.
- The hearing unfolded as Gov. Jared Polis weighed possible clemency, election officials urged him not to grant it, national allies pressed for mercy, and a recent bid for federal interim release was denied.