Colorado Gov. Jared Polis fired two members of his clemency advisory board Wednesday for publicly speaking against his decision to free Tina Peters after she was convicted of election-related crimes, his office confirmed to The Denver Post.
Polis removed Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi from the advisory board because they “breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging board members’ votes,” according to letters from Polis reported Wednesday afternoon by the New York Times, which .
Following the 2020 election, Peters, then the Mesa County clerk and recorder, gave a person associated with election-denier Mike Lindell access to Mesa County’s voting system. She was found guilty of four felonies and sentenced in October 2024 to nine years in prison for the crimes.
Polis commuted her sentence in May, arguing that her sentence was “harsher” than people who were also convicted of attempting to influence a public official had received in other circumstances. He also argued that she was being punished for her speech.
He faced swift, pointed criticism from a slew of other Democrats, along with an official censure by the state party. Peters was released June 1.
In mid-June, Seigel Proff and Taslimi, two attorneys on the clemency advisory board, spoke to the media and wrote an opinion piece for The Post questioning Polis’ decision. They wrote that the board unanimously voted twice to recommend denial of clemency for Peters. While Polis ignored the board and freed Peters early, they wrote, he also had a history of ignoring their recommendations to grant clemency to other applicants.
“The problem is not about Tina Peters’ case in isolation,” Siegel Proff and Taslimi wrote. “It is what his decision reveals. That the system bends for some and holds firm against everyone else.”
The governor’s office quietly announced Wednesday that, among other appointments, he had appointed two new members to fill newly vacant seats on the Executive Clemency Advisory Board. In a statement Wednesday evening, Polis spokesperson Eric Maruyama wrote that the clemency process requires “thoughtful review, unbiased consideration, and the utmost confidentiality for the applicants.”
“Publicly disclosing board recommendations and how members vote on any case threatens the credibility of the board, colors future deliberations by the board, and breaks clearly stated confidentiality policy articulated in the Executive Order which establishes this board,” Maruyama wrote. “Applicants going forward can expect the full confidentiality promised in the Executive Order.”
Since her release, Peters has been going on podcasts and other conservative media to continue spreading conspiracy theories about elections and to claim she was a political prisoner. On Tuesday, she met in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, who took credit for winning her release and Peters “caught the Democrats cheating.”
Asked about Peters using her freedom to meet with Trump and continue to push election conspiracies, Maruyama wrote: “The Governor is focused on protecting Colorado communities and responding to the five state responsibility fires currently burning in our state, not who visits the Oval Office.”
