Colorado's attorney general accused the Trump administration on Thursday of waging a “revenge campaign” by choking off funds and ending federal programs over the state's refusal to accede to the Republican president's demands to free an imprisoned elections clerk.
President Donald Trump has pushed unsuccessfully for Colorado to release former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted in state court of orchestrating a data breach scheme driven by false claims about fraud in Trump's 2020 election defeat. Trump also wants the state to change its mail-in voting system, which he has claimed gives an unfair edge to Democrats.
As Trump's demands grew louder in recent months, federal officials issued a string of decisions and orders negatively impacting Colorado, including dissolving a climate research lab, threatening to cut transportation money, withholding funds for needy families and relocating U.S. Space Command to Alabama.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the administration in October seeking to overturn the Space Command move. On Thursday, the Democrat amended his lawsuit to include other federal changes impacting Colorado — and linking those actions directly to the incarceration of Peters.
Weiser called it a “revenge campaign.”
“The purpose is clear: to coerce Colorado to end mail-in voting and to release Tina Peters from prison. When the threats alone did not work, the Trump Administration followed through, employing various punishments against Colorado for its exercise of sovereign powers,” state attorneys said in Thursday's filing.
The administration has not yet formally responded to the claims in the lawsuit. A White House spokeswoman declined to say if there was any connection between recent federal spending decisions in Colorado and Peters' case.
“President Trump is using his lawful and discretionary authority to ensure federal dollars are being spent in a way that aligns with the agenda endorsed by the American people when they resoundingly reelected the President," spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote in an email.
Trump said Thursday in a social media post, "FREE TINA PETERS!"
In a Dec. 31 post calling for Peters' release, Trump referred to Colorado's Democratic governor as a “scumbag." The president also claimed that the state's mail-in system “makes it impossible for a Republican to win an otherwise very winnable state.”
Experts have said Colorado's mail in system is safe, secure and legal, and that mail-in voting gives neither party an advantage.
Trump last month issued a symbolic pardon for Peters. His pardon power does not extend to state crimes like those for which Peters was convicted last year and sentenced to nine years in prison.
But the move underscored Trump’s continued efforts to re-cast the 2020 election as stolen from him, though courts around the country and Trump’s own attorney general at the time found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome.
Weiser's lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in Denver to declare that Colorado has been unjustly punished by the administration in violation of the Constitution's guarantee of state sovereignty.
“I recognize this is a novel request, and that’s because this is an unprecedented administration," Weiser said during a news conference. ”We’ve never seen an administration act in a way that is so flatly violating the Constitution and disrespecting state sovereign authority."
Peters is asking a state appeals court to recognize Trump’s pardon as valid. Her attorneys are due in court next week as they seek to overturn her conviction.
FILE - Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser pauses during an interview with The Associated Press, Nov. 21, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.
Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.
The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.
The latest:
Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.
As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.
Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.
Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”
As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.
Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.
Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.
“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.
He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.
Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.
The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.
Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.
The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.
Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”
The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.
Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”
Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.
“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.
He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.
The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
