Brandon Marshall
Audio By Carbonatix
A late-night email may be the glue connecting millions in federal funding cuts in Colorado as a form of retaliation over Tina Peters’ prison sentence.
According to the Denver Post and New York Times, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and senior policy strategist wrote an email titled “brainstorm call” to five agencies around 3 a.m. on Dec. 15, 2025. The email reportedly asked for a joint call later in the day to discuss “immediate actions that your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado.”
The email went to officials within the United States departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior and Agriculture, as well as the Office of Management and Budget. The purpose of the call was to allegedly “prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities.”
Just a few hours later, Trump called Gov. Jared Polis “weak and pathetic” on live television in response to the imprisonment of Peters, the infamous Mesa County clerk and convicted election denier.
Colorado officials don’t believe the timing was a coincidence, calling the email a “smoking gun” in an Aug. 11 hearing regarding a state lawsuit alleging retaliation by the Trump administration, according to the Post. State officials are currently arguing that the retaliation was directly connected to Trump’s frustration with Peters’ incarceration and the state’s mail-in balloting system.
Just a few days after the alleged call, Colorado saw millions in federal funding cuts, including the Office of Management and Budget closing the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the Department of Energy ending $615 million in funding intended for Colorado, and federal emergency officials rejecting disaster relief in the Western Slope after wildfires.
“The shocking White House email discussed in court earlier this week proves what we have long suspected: the White House orchestrated an unconstitutional scheme to weaponize the federal government to attack and punish Colorado for its lawful decisions over elections and our criminal justice system,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser says in a statement to Westword.
Weiser says the public will soon learn more about the “revenge plans” as the “lawless” administration produces more evidence.
That revenge, of course, would be Trump’s spat with Polis over Peters, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2024 after a Mesa County jury convicted her on four felony charges and three misdemeanors in connection with a 2021 security breach involving her own elections office.
Trump initially asked that she be moved to a federal prison, but Polis denied it. Then he demanded that Polis pardon her, but Polis denied it. Then Trump gave her a presidential “full pardon,” which was immaterial in a state case, and said, “God Bless Tina Peters,” on Truth Social right before the “brainstorm call.”
After the alleged retaliation, Polis did a full heel turn in May when he announced clemency for 44 people, Peters included, leading to his state’s own Democratic party to censure him.
“This power has the ability to change lives — help grant a second chance for someone who has made grave mistakes — and it comes with great consideration, and sometimes even controversy,” Polis said after the decision.
After the Post dropped its story, the governor wasn’t as magnanimous.
“Since Trump took office, his administration has taken a number of actions that have negatively impacted Coloradans and our communities. If those decisions were based on political retribution against Colorado, we hope the courts will provide relief to Colorado,” Polis says in a statement. “We have seen the very real impacts from the actions of the federal government against Colorado, and would hope that the president and administration would put people ahead of politics.”
Peters, pardons and federal punishment. Just another day in 2026.
