A year after President Donald Trump threatened “harsh measures” against Colorado unless the state released convicted election denier Tina Peters early from prison, new reporting has revealed an apparent extortion plot by the administration.
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A newly disclosed email is renewing scrutiny over whether the White House followed through on that threat, wrote MS NOW’s Steve Benen.
The New York Times reported that as Trump publicly criticized Colorado for incarcerating Peters, a former county clerk convicted of tampering with voting machines, the White House convened an urgent “brainstorm call” with five federal agencies to explore curbing federal support to the state. The next day, the Departments of Transportation and Energy announced they were canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for Colorado projects.
The email documenting the call was revealed during a federal court hearing Tuesday. State officials say it is the clearest evidence yet that the administration marshaled government resources to retaliate against Colorado over its use of mail-in ballots and Peters’ conviction. The email was sent by White House special assistant Emily Underwood days after Trump posted a series of messages about Peters on Truth Social.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson reacted with alarm. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jackson said, according to a transcript. “The very idea that the president… would target a state because they don’t feel that the state and its administrators are in line with the current administration’s priorities is phenomenal.”
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A White House spokesperson denied the brainstorm call was related to Peters and referred questions about the canceled grants to the Office of Management and Budget.
The dispute follows earlier actions targeting Colorado, including Trump’s veto of clean water funding, the relocation of Space Command, and moves to dismantle a federal climate research center. In May, Gov. Jared Polis commuted Peters’ sentence.
“It’s worth emphasizing that the gambit — what was effectively an extortion plot, hatched by the White House against an American state — proved effective,” Benen wrote. “But the fact that the scheme worked doesn’t make it any more defensible.”
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“Impeachment efforts have been launched over less,” he added.
