Trump’s intends to pardon a convicted election denier

But the twist is, the conviction was made in Colorado’s state court system, not in federal court.

“The President of the United States has the power to grant a pardon in any of the states of the United States,” Mr. Ticktin wrote in a letter to Mr. Trump last week that portrayed Ms. Peters as a political prisoner who could be a witness to investigations into the false claims that the election was stolen from Mr. Trump.

Legal scholars and Colorado officials were incredulous. They said the notion that the president could intervene in state courts clashed with the plain language of the Constitution, as well as its fundamental principles of federalism and states’ rights.

“This is so far beyond the pale,” Mr. Weiser, the attorney general, said. “No one has thought to do this because it is so clearly against our constitutional system of government.”