By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

President Donald Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters on Thursday, but it alone won’t free the former Colorado elections administrator who was convicted under state laws of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s pardon power does not extend to state crimes like those for which Peters was convicted last year and sentenced to nine years in prison.

“Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump said in a social media post that repeated his false claims of election fraud.

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted of allowing a man to misuse a security ca

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