Tina Peters grabbed another inmate’s neck and shoved her during a brief scuffle in a Colorado prison, according to surveillance video that appears to contradict claims from Peters’ attorney.
Peters, 70, is a former elections official whose incarceration has become a cause celebre for President Donald Trump. Sentenced to nine years for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines after the 2020 election, she is now at a state prison in Pueblo.
After the confrontation on Sunday, Jan. 18, her defense team alleged in a news release that Peters was “assaulted” and that she now faces criminal charges as a result. One of her attorneys, Peter Ticktin, told Trump ally Steve Bannon on Monday that Peters was attacked “from behind.”
The video, obtained by the Denver Post on Monday night, supports a different version of events. It shows Peters maneuvering a large cart toward a closet. Peters then enters the closet, leaving the cart in front of its door. Another inmate, who appears to be carrying cleaning supplies, enters the frame and appears to try to move the cart away from the closet door.
As the other woman moves the cart aside, Peters emerges from the closet, grabs the woman and shoves her into the middle of the room. Peters has one hand on the woman’s neck and another on her right arm, the video shows. The two then seem to exchange words, and Peters shoves her away.
Peters is obscured from the camera when the scuffle first starts. The other inmate is visible throughout most of the incident, save for a brief moment where part of her right arm is obscured by the closet door.
The video was provided to the Post in response to a public records request.
In a statement Monday night, state Corrections Department spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia confirmed that Peters “was involved in an incident with another inmate” Sunday night. No one was injured, she wrote.
In a contradiction of the lawyer’s statement about criminal charges, Gonzalez-Garcia said no one has been charged as a result of the scuffle, and Peters was moved to a different housing unit in the prison. Neither inmate was placed in solitary confinement, which is not utilized in that facility, Gonzalez-Garcia wrote.
The department is still investigating, she said.
Ticktin did not immediately respond to an email sent Monday night.
Peters was sentenced to a combined nine years in jail and prison in October 2024. She was convicted of several crimes after she provided a third party access to Mesa County’s election systems. Trump contends that Peters was wrongfully convicted; he issued a legally dubious federal pardon for Peters late last year and has repeatedly demanded that Colorado and Gov. Jared Polis release her.
Peters is appealing her conviction, and a state appeals court signaled some skepticism last week about the length of her sentence.
Polis has said he is considering a request to release Peters or alter her sentence. He has called her sentence “harsh” and “unusual.” Pressed by reporters last week, he refused to say if he’s discussed the case with the Trump administration. He denied that he’d discussed releasing her as part of a trade for restored federal funding or other considerations. Several state officials — including Attorney General Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and a group of county clerks — have asked him to leave Peters’ sentence in place.
A copy of Peters’ inmate file, also obtained through a records request, shows she had a mixed first year in prison. Between April and July 2025, she received four write-ups, prompting prison officials to reject her application for a special unit. Parts of the file are redacted, though visible negative writeups appear to be related to minor issues, like loitering or “hiding.”
She told prison staff in August that she would soon be released, according to the file. In December, after officials told her she would not be released to visit her mother in the hospital, she said she planned to have “negative things” about the prison “plastered all over social media.”
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