Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday fired two members of the state’s clemency board after they spoke out against his controversial decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters – an election denier whose sentence was cut in half by the outgoing Democratic governor in May.
Azra Taslimi and Hannah Seigel Proff told CNN they were fired after speaking out publicly, including in a New York Times article in June, in which they revealed secret details about the clemency process and criticized the governor for overruling the board. They told the Times the clemency board twice voted unanimously behind closed doors to reject Peters’ application for an early release from prison.
Polis’ decision in May to release Peters came after President Donald Trump waged a long pressure campaign against Colorado to free her. Peters – who was released from prison in June – was the last Trump ally still in prison for 2020 election-related crimes.
In letters to Taslimi and Proff obtained by CNN, Polis said the two members breached confidentiality by speaking out.
“Specifically, you breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging Board members’ votes pertaining to a clemency application which you obtained only through your official position on this Board,” Polis wrote in the letters.
The two women told CNN they are disappointed they were fired — but not surprised.
“I’m not upset that he overrode our decision. I think what’s upsetting is that we understand why he did it, which is that you know Tina Peters had a powerful ally behind her,” Taslimi said. “She had political pressure applied in her name, and the governor capitulated to it, and that is what makes this unfair, and that is why I call it selective mercy, because you are giving her the benefit that you don’t give or apply to anyone else.”
Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for the governor, told CNN in a statement Wednesday, “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.”
Proff, who served on the board for nearly eight years, said she understood the state rules around the closed-door clemency recommendation process “more as the confidentiality to protect the people who apply for clemency, not to protect the governor.”
The governor primarily justified his decision to release Peters by citing a recent Colorado appeals court ruling that found the trial judge violated Peters’ First Amendment rights by improperly punishing her for her protected speech about the 2020 election.
“It was a straightforward decision because, after reviewing the facts, and reading the Appeals Court decision, I concluded that her sentence was simply too long,” Polis wrote in a Substack post, where he condemned Peters’ crimes.
Now that they’ve been terminated, Proff worries there will be less transparency.
“I worry now that we’ve been terminated from the board what comes of this is that people are less likely to speak out … that politicians will go unchecked on these sort of decisions,” Proff said.
