He Canceled Colorado's Drinking Water Over A Prison Sentence

They put it in writing. An email, five federal agencies, and a state that wouldn’t do what it was told.

Former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters

He Canceled Colorado's Drinking Water Over A Prison Sentence

They put it in writing. An email, five federal agencies, and a state that wouldn’t do what it was told.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #1,003: Tuesday, August 18th, 2026

The thing about a shakedown is that nobody writes it down.

That’s the entire craft. You imply. You gesture. You mention how nice the place looks and, “Oh, what a shame it’d be if something happened.”

Every mob movie ever made turns on this; the guy who says the incriminating sentence out loud…is the guy who ends up in a federal courtroom.

So…here’s what happened on December 15th of last year, at 2:43 in the morning.

A Deputy Assistant to the President named Emily Underwood sent an email. Subject line: brainstorm call.

It went to officials at five federal agencies. Energy. Transportation. Interior. Agriculture. And the Office of Management and Budget.

The stated purpose: to prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities.

And then the line that ought to end somebody’s career:

Come prepared to discuss immediate actions your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado.

Immediate actions. With respect to Colorado.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Somebody wrote the quiet part down…at a quarter to three in the morning…and hit send to five cabinet-level agencies.

What Colorado Had Done

You need the context or the rest doesn’t land.

Tina Peters was the Mesa County clerk. She was convicted in state court of tampering with voting machines. State crimes…state prison.

Trump wanted her out. He asked Governor Polis to move her to federal custody: denied. He demanded a pardon: denied. He then issued her a presidential “full pardon,” which for a state conviction is roughly as legally meaningful as a coupon…and posted God Bless Tina Peters on Truth Social.

Days later: the 2:43 a.m. email.

About fifteen hours after it went out…Trump publicly called Colorado’s governor weak and pathetic.

So Colorado’s offense, in full: it convicted a woman who tampered with election equipment…declined to un-convict her on request…and kept running mail-in ballots.

What Happened Next

The following day…the very next day…Transportation and Energy announced they were canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to Colorado. Reporting puts Energy at roughly $615 million and Transportation at $109 million.

Then…the rest of it rolled in.

OMB moved to shutter the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. A world-class climate lab.

FEMA rejected disaster relief for the Lee and Elk fires and for flooding on the Western Slope. Burned-out rural counties. Denied.

Agriculture ordered the state to re-certify a hundred thousand SNAP recipients on a short clock. That’s food.

Trump vetoed the bipartisan Arkansas Valley Conduit bill; a project to bring clean drinking water to southeastern Colorado.

And Space Command headquarters…got relocated to Alabama.

Read that list again…slowly.

Water. Food. Disaster relief for fire victims. Science. Roads.

Not one of those things belongs to Donald Trump. Every dollar of it was appropriated by Congress…on behalf of the American public…and a substantial share of it was headed to rural Western Slope counties that voted for him.

He didn’t punish Colorado’s government. He punished Colorado’s people, and used their own money to do it.

The Judge

Here’s where it gets clarifying.

This came out last Tuesday in federal court in Denver…in a lawsuit brought by Colorado’s attorney general. State lawyers called the email their smoking gun.

Judge R. Brooke Jackson, from the bench, on the record:

I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never even imagined anything like it.

He went on to say it’s extraordinary that the federal government would target a state because it doesn’t like the state’s politics; and then ordered the administration to hand over more documents.

I want you to appreciate what that is. That’s not a pundit. That’s not a Democrat. That’s a federal judge…looking at a piece of paper and saying…essentially…I have been doing this a long time and I did not know people did this.

Now Let Me Give You The Other Side

Because I always do, and because it makes the case stronger rather than weaker.

The White House denies the call had anything to do with Tina Peters and referred questions to OMB.

And…there’s a genuine analytical caution worth stating plainly: timing is not proof of an agreement.

Administrations review…redirect…and cancel grants constantly…for policy and budget reasons. The email doesn’t say because of Peters. Nobody has yet established that every canceled dollar traces to that call.

Fine. Take all of that seriously.

Now…here’s Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd of Colorado…who noted that politics has always involved hardball and that presidents of both parties have clashed with states…and then said federal power cannot be used for political retaliation…and the administration should explain what happened.

When the Republican from the affected district…is asking for an explanation… “nothing to see here” has already failed.

And The Worst Part Is That It Worked

In May, Polis granted clemency to 44 people. Tina Peters was among them. She walked.

His own state Democratic Party censured him for it.

And…the week before this email surfaced…Peters said on a podcast that the White House had been directly involved in her clemency.

So…let’s total the ledger.

Colorado lost the water project…the climate lab…Space Command…the disaster relief… and hundreds of millions in grants.

Trump got the outcome he wanted.

The racket cleared.

That’s the part I can’t get past. Not the brazenness; the success. Because a shakedown that works…does not stay a one-off. It becomes a tool. And…every governor in America now knows precisely what a 2:43 a.m. email can cost their state.

That’s not an accident. That’s the product.

What Actually Happens Now

I’m not going to tell you he’ll be arrested tomorrow, because he won’t, and I’d rather give you the real map than a satisfying lie.

Here’s what’s genuinely in motion.

The lawsuit.

Judge Jackson just ordered document production. Discovery is where the rest of that call comes out; who was on it…what each agency proposed…what got executed. That’s the thread with actual tension on it.

The inspectors general.

Senator Hickenlooper has called on the IG of every agency on that email to investigate. IGs can subpoena and publish.

And oversight…

…which is the one that matters most…and the one nobody’s saying out loud. Compelling testimony requires subpoena power. Subpoena power belongs to the majority. That is a November question...and it’s the entire damn ballgame.

Impeachment with this Congress isn’t happening…and pretending otherwise wastes the anger.

Somebody put it in writing at 2:43 in the morning. A federal judge said he’d never imagined such a thing. A Republican congressman is asking for an explanation.

The evidence is not the problem here. It never was.

The problem…is that the only people who can do anything about it…have to be sent there…and that happens on one specific Tuesday…in November.

#HoldFast

Back soon.

-Jack

Jack Hopkins

P.S. They canceled the water project.

Clean drinking water…southeastern Colorado…bipartisan bill…people who’d been waiting decades for it.

Because a woman who tampered with voting machines was in a state prison where a state judge put her.

I’ve written a lot of angry sentences this year. That one took me three tries.

Sources

• Trump push to retaliate against Colorado described as ‘weaponization’ — Colorado Public Radio (Rep. Hurd and Sen. Hickenlooper responses)

• Trump administration accused of targeting Colorado with funding cuts, judge orders document release — 9NEWS(Judge Jackson’s remarks from the transcript)

• State lawsuit alleges White House orchestrated campaign against Colorado — Denver7 (Aug. 11 hearing transcript, email text)

• Colorado Was Threatened with Federal Agency Budget Cuts If Peters Wasn’t Freed — Ark Valley Voice (itemized cuts)

• Peters says White House was involved in clemency — Grand Junction Sentinel

• New evidence suggests White House took steps to punish Colorado over Tina Peters case — MaddowBlog (White House denial)