In August 2025 — roughly seven months into his second presidency — Donald Trump threatened Colorado officials with "harsh measures" unless they released former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from prison, where she was serving time on criminal charges tied to her efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Newly revealed emails, according to MS NOW's Steve Benen, shed light on the steps Trump took to punish the State of Colorado over Peters' incarceration.

Journalist Kyle Griffin highlighted Benen's August 17 opinion column in a post on X, formerly Twitter:

"Emails revealed in court: As Trump publicly condemned Colorado for incarcerating convicted felon and election denier Tina Peters, the White House organized an urgent 'brainstorm call' with five federal agencies — with the goal of exploring ways to curtail federal support to Colorado. The next day, federal agencies announced they were canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for Colorado projects."

In his column, Benen writes that the "degree to which" Trump "was serious" about punishing Colorado because of Peters "is still coming into focus."

Citing a New York Times report, Benen notes:

"The New York Times reported, late last week, for example, that as Trump publicly condemned the Rocky Mountain State for incarcerating a convicted felon, the White House organized an urgent 'brainstorm call' with five federal agencies, with the goal of exploring ways to curtail federal support to Colorado," Benen explains. "The meeting, evidently, was a success — at least as far as the administration was concerned."

Trump's "assault against the Democratic-run state," Benen observes, ranged from cutting off transportation funds to taking "steps to dismantle a renowned science lab in Colorado."

"But while the pattern is not new, what is new is the newly disclosed document: We're now aware of an e-mail, sent by White House special assistant Emily Underwood just days after the president published a series of messages related to Peters, which reinforces rather obvious suspicions that the administration's campaign against Colorado was not a mere coincidence: Team Trump set out to punish the state, and then took a variety of steps to execute that plan ... It's worth emphasizing that the gambit — what was effectively an extortion plot, hatched by the White House against an American state — proved effective."

He continues: "In mid-May, Polis succumbed to pressure and announced his commutation for Peters, a convicted felon who illegally tried to use her office in pursuit of pro-Trump election conspiracy theories. But the fact that the scheme worked doesn't make it any more defensible."

The episode underscores how a fight centered on one state official's incarceration quickly broadened into a federal-state confrontation, with grant cancellations and other funding moves carrying consequences well beyond Peters' case. It also explains why the newly disclosed emails matter: they add documentation to questions about whether the administration's actions were coordinated as a pressure campaign rather than isolated responses.

Source: Alternet