ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
In Colorado, our launch of the golden age feels different than the stories we’re told about the rest of the country. While friends in Florida and Idaho, Virginia and North Dakota, are celebrating deregulation and a return to normalcy, here in the Centennial state, the battle for basic liberty rages on.
The first session of the 75th Colorado General Assembly was the most radical in recent memory — and that’s saying something. Priorities of the Democrat majority included disarming law abiding residents, ending the bill of rights for taxpayers, and protecting the degeneracy of minor attracted persons by destroying parental rights.
They moved the needle on all these priorities and, in the process, woke up sleeping gun owners, taxpayers, and parents in the process. Lawsuits are underway on all fronts. I anticipate an even more contentious second session, but I welcome the break until January.
You can never fully exhale while they’re gaveled in.
Over in the Executive Branch, former Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Perry Beall resigned from the Department of State, telling clerks after the fact that he was “going back to being a lawyer.”
Beall has made no announcement yet as to where he’s going, and it’s rumored he may return to the Attorney General’s office. State leadership is preparing for a multi-front war with the federal government, and Beall was outside counsel for CDoS as part of the AG’s office before becoming Deputy Secretary of State in 2021.
The record of roles, responsibilities, and actions in CDoS imply that the department is actually run by the Deputy — for example, Jena Griswold can’t answer basic questions about election systems and voter roll maintenance without talking points and a friendly interviewer — so, who is running CDoS now?
Former Perkins Coie attorney Andrew Kline was named to replace Beall, and he started immediately. According to elections officials familiar with the transition, his first order of business was to build relationships with county clerks and establish a cadence for communication. (Talking points inbound.)
This is the backdrop inside Colorado as the Trump Department of Justice goes on offense.
Recently sworn in DOJ Civil Rights AAG Harmeet Dhillon hinted at federal action against HB25-1312, the bill to remove children from non-mutilitating parents, in a post on X:
“…see a long line of SCOTUS precedent holding that parents, not the state, control the upbringing of children. Don’t get too attached to your child mutilation project. It won’t stand.”
As I write this, the bill awaits the governor’s signature.
The DOJ also continues their investigation into the weaponization of government against Tina Peters in Colorado — an investigation that, if done properly, will lead back to August 2021 and indictments on high crimes and misdemeanors for, at minimum, abuse of power.
Earlier this month, President Trump posted on Truth Social to Free Tina Peters, in a post criticizing the (undeniable) abuses of power under Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for Governor.
The President’s post renewed calls from Colorado and national grassroots activists for Governor Jared Polis to pardon Peters or commute her sentence, but it also added new voices to the campaign to free Tina Peters.
Representative Lauren Boebert (CO-04) sent a strongly worded letter to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate violations of Peters’ civil rights in March, and announced it on X on May 6, 2025, after the President’s Truth Social post. This was a surprising development.
On July 12, 2022, an embattled Tina Peters spoke to a national sheriffs association meeting in Nevada, during which she announced that Representative Boebert was present at a dinner meeting with Peters and her alleged coconspirators the same day the images were taken.
If true, then Boebert was a material witness to the facts of the alleged conspiracy and potentially in a position to dispute the assertions of the state and federal prosecutors. Boebert was not mentioned or present at Peters’ trial.
At a minimum, Boebert could have supported Tina publicly, in the press and on the hill. But Boebert was silent.
The CD4 representative has two official X accounts, and searching both of them shows that Lauren Boebert’s first mention of Tina Peters, in the digital public square, was May 6, 2025.
Reminder that, in 2021-22 when Peters story took place, Lauren Boebert represented CD3 and was Peters’ congresswoman.
I wonder how Tina Peters feels about her level of representation. I bet she thinks about it from inside her cell where she is doing nine years following a show trial. If only there had been more witnesses to support the factual arguments at trial.
Boebert’s newfound interest in Peters’ crucible is also a signal of change. I hope Director Patel takes Boebert up on the investigatory angle she proposed.
It’s a new world at the precipice of a golden age. But, here in Colorado, those in power are fighting hard to preserve their power and status quo incentives.
They’re fighting against change. Regardless of party, they’re fighting against change.
Imagine what’s possible. Now realize what stands in our way. The only way out is through.
Ashe in America is a writer and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
