COLORADO — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert said Friday that President Donald Trump has blocked funds for a federal clean drinking water project in her Colorado congressional district in retaliation for the prosecution of former county clerk Tina Peters. Boebert made the comments to 9News Denver the same day Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted Peters's nearly nine-year prison sentence and ordered her release on June 1.

"We were told that Tina was the reason we couldn't get water," she said, adding that she hoped Peters's release would convince Trump to stop blocking the funds. Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, had allowed unauthorized people to access voting records during efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In a written statement, Boebert said: "I'm proud of the relentless pressure my office and I applied, working hand-in-hand with President Donald Trump, to highlight Tina's case and demand fairness." She also wrote, "This outcome would not have been possible without the continued pressure and advocacy from President Trump who always knew Tina deserved fairness under the law."

In January, Trump vetoed a bill that would have funded the drinking water project in Boebert's congressional district. The measure had passed the House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously and would have provided clean drinking water for 50,000 people in the region. She, like all other Colorado members of Congress, supported the bill. Trump cited financial concerns as his reason for the veto.

On the House floor, Boebert pointed out that Trump had supported the water project before he promised retaliation against Colorado for keeping Peters in jail. When the House upheld the veto, she criticized her colleagues without criticizing the president.

"I am disappointed to see the lack of leadership, the amount of people that will fold, that will cave, that will not take a stand," she said, adding: "This is a bill that in policy, no one in that chamber disagreed with. This was purely political and it's very unfortunate."

"Folks are afraid of getting a mean tweet or attacked. And I came here to deliver for my constituents," she said.