🐱

'I didn't want to go to prom with her anyway. Actually, she's ugly really'https://t.co/g82lFh9c7L

— Nick Field (@nick_field90) December 11, 2025

I’m old enough to remember when this happened:

Trump threatened to pull the state's federal funding, he sent Vance there multiple times, his allies (including his son) are currently threatening to oust all the Republicans who rebuked him, and he's already sicced his goons on these lawmakers, bringing them countless death… https://t.co/mtBRxq41xp

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) December 11, 2025

Maybe he’s a paper tiger who’s all growl and no bite? He vowed doom and disaster. And now all he says is, he really didn’t care? He’s threatened primary challenges. Will he walk away from that, too?

Meow.🐱 

Trump: Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the "crime" of demanding Honest Elections. Today I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election! pic.twitter.com/1sOC972t7K

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 12, 2025

And he does this to try to hide the fact that he has no teeth. He doesn’t even have claws. Because Tina is in jail on state charges. Trump’s pardon is a paper tiger, too. It’s as powerless as his threats to Indiana. In fact, let’s take that up.

That was an unusual call: I just got off the phone with Tina Peters’ attorney Peter Ticktin. He had not heard this news until I read him the president’s post over the phone. His reaction: “Freaking fantastic”

Peters’ conviction is a state one, not federal… (1/x) pic.twitter.com/qVBPcAjf9r

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) December 12, 2025

I asked Ticktin about the fact that Colorado Gov. Polis has said he will not pardon her or transfer her to another prison - and what happens next. He responded: "Let's see if they take that position. I'm hoping that they won't for many reasons."

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) December 12, 2025

Ticktin told me he's hopeful this reaches the Supreme Court.

This is his letter and pardon request on behalf of Tina Peters that he sent a few days ago to Trump and DOJ: Sup.-Cover-Letter-for-Application-for-Pardon-for-Tina-Peters.pdf

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) December 12, 2025

Everybody take a beat. Peter’s is in jail for 8 more years. Or maybe she gets out early for good behavior. I have no idea; it’s a matter of Colorado law. Which is not an insignificant issue here.

Until the 14th amendment (actually subsequent to that, with cases that made the determination), not even the Bill of Rights applied to the states. “Congress shall make no law” doesn’t really imply a further application to the Texas Legislature. Many states included similar protections to the Bill of Rights in their constitutions for that very reason. After the 14th, the B of R was “read” through that amendment to apply to the states, just as states also had to provide due process of law and equal protection to all persons within their jurisdiction.

So Presidential pardon power has NEVER been thought, or construed, to apply to state law matters. I say that not as an expert, or even a researcher, on the question. I say it because only makes sense, given the broader legal and constitutional history. The 14th was a watershed. We were a different constitutional republic after it than we were before. It changed the relationship of the states to the federal government, and to the constitution. And that change is not going to be undone by even the Roberts Court.

So this idea that Ms. Peters can sue to get this pardon to apply to her? Laughable. First, the settled view that Presidents can’t pardon state crimes is what the convention meant when it wrote the constitution. It is the “fundamentalist” view. The 14th almost fundamentally rewrote the constitution, for the better. But it didn’t touch the pardon power, any more than it touched Congress’ power to levy taxes or allocate government spending. I’m trying to imagine how the pardon power could be read through the 14th amendment to place the POTUS above the sovereignty of the states. 

I don’t have that much imagination.