Tina Peters was convicted on state charges under the laws of Colorado. Trump, despite his best attempts to expand the powers of the federal executive branch, has no authority to dictate how Colorado dispenses justice under its own criminal code.

But the president has exhibited no real understanding of basic constitutional principles such as states’ sovereignty. He seems to think that being president allows him to usurp state authority whenever he likes.

But that’s not how federalism works.

Trump has made a big deal about clawing back federal overreach. He created the Department of Government Efficiency — by executive order — purportedly to reduce the federal government’s “footprint” in a bid to return power to local communities and state governments. Calling for Peters’ release is the epitome of the federal overreach Trump has demonized as a hallmark of Democratic administrations.

In similar ironic twist, Trump issued an executive order “ending the weaponization of the federal government.” But in calling for Peters’ release, he is weaponizing the federal government to exert undue pressure on a state criminal justice system to perpetuate his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

He is making Peters a martyr to his nefarious cause.

Peters’ saga should be well known to Mesa County citizens. She was the Mesa County clerk — the county’s elections chief — when she was accused of obtaining a security badge under false pretenses, which she then gave to someone else to gain access to Mesa County’s election system — all in an effort to prove nonexistent ballot fraud.

Last fall, a Mesa County jury found Peters guilty on seven of 10 counts, including four felonies. Colorado District Court Judge Matthew Barret imposed a nine-year prison sentence.

She was the first election official on any local level to be charged with a security breach after the 2020 election — when the unfounded “Big Lie” took hold.

Writing on Truth Social on Monday, Trump delivered one of his classic switcheroos in which facts take a vacation and the “truth” is whatever he wants it to be. In this case, an innocent Peters was framed by a “radical left” Democratic attorney general.

“Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020,” Trump wrote.

But Peters was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney at the behest of an all-GOP county commission. In a statement to The Associated Press in March, District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said, “In one of the most conservative jurisdictions in Colorado, the same voters who elected Ms. Peters, also elected the Republican District Attorney who handled the prosecution, and the all-Republican Board of County Commissioners who unanimously requested the prosecution of Ms. Peters on behalf of the citizens she victimized. Ms. Peters was indicted by a grand jury of her peers, and convicted at trial by the jury of her peers that she selected.”

As for the “election crimes and misdeeds in 2020” that Trump says Peters’ conviction covered up — where’s the evidence?

The U.S. Department of Justice “cites not a single fact to support its baseless allegations that there are any reasonable concerns about Ms. Peters’ prosecution or sentence, or that the prosecution was politically motivated,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in March when the DOJ filed a document in Colorado’s U.S. District Court indicating they plan to review Peters’ conviction.

Trump turned up the heat with Monday’s post, directing DOJ to “take all necessary action to help secure the release of former Mesa county clerk Tina Peters.”

Twelve jurors in Mesa County (where Trump won by nearly two votes to one) found Peters guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the rule of law at work.

Trump, apparently, cares not about such niggling twaddle.