Bennet requests Senate investigation into Trump administration's 'smoking gun' Colorado email

Seth Klamann, The Denver Post on Aug 20, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet asked Senate leadership to launch committee investigations into the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold funding and close a marquee climate lab in Colorado last year, alleging that the apparent retribution “strikes at the core of our democracy.”

Bennet made the request in a Thursday morning letter to Sen. John Thune, the Republican majority leader, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader. It follows last week’s call from U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper for the inspectors general of several federal agencies to investigate whether federal resources were used to target the state.

The request comes a week after attorneys for the state of Colorado disclosed a December email from a White House aide summoning officials from several agencies to discuss “immediate actions that your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado.” The email was then followed by funding cuts, the proposed closure of Boulder’s National Center for Atmospheric Research and the denial of disaster assistance funds.

Echoing allegations raised by attorneys for the state, who called the email a “smoking gun,” Bennet in his letter to Senate leadership accused the Trump administration of targeting the state because of Tina Peters’ then-continued incarceration. Attorneys for the state have also argued that Colorado had also drawn the president’s ire because of its mail-in balloting system and its laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In court filings, the administration has argued that it’s not unusual for the federal government to “make decisions based on political or geographic considerations.” The White House has denied that Colorado officials’ refusal to release or transfer Peters played a part in the email or subsequent administrative decisions.

An ally of President Donald Trump, Peters was serving a prison sentence for her role in giving an unauthorized person access to secure voting equipment in Mesa County. Her sentence was commuted by Gov. Jared Polis in May, and she was released June 1.

Bennet said that presidential administrations were entitled to advance their political priorities but that they couldn’t “dictate terms to states.” Three constitutional law professors told The Denver Post last week that the email — and the coordinated effort it appeared to reveal — was unprecedented and likely illegal. One also warned about a permanent rupture of trust between state and federal authorities, an argument that Bennet also stressed.

“Allowing this unconstitutional overreach to go unchallenged sets a dangerous precedent, and unsettles the relationship between states and the federal government,” Bennet wrote. “No state should ever be subject to punitive measures for decisions that simply happen to go against a sitting president’s desires — and no American should be denied relief from floods and wildfires, or see their opportunity for clean water ripped away, simply because they happen to live in a state at odds with a given administration.”

Emails sent to Thune and Schumer’s offices were not immediately returned Thursday morning.

The December email, first teported last week by The Post, was read aloud in federal court on Aug. 11, and a copy was released in federal filings Wednesday.

Under the subject line “brainstorm call,” the email was sent by a Trump assistant to 14 federal officials and White House aides. The recipients included the chiefs of staff for the departments of energy, education, transportation, interior and agriculture. A deputy secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development was also included, as was a White House lawyer and an associate director for the Office of Management and Budget.

Federal action against Colorado rolled out quickly after the brainstorm session. The next day, the Energy Department’s deputy general counsel summoned several people to a “portfolio review” meeting requested by the White House, according to additional records filed in federal court. Several emails withheld by the Justice Department, but described in a log turned over to the state, involved Energy Department staff discussing the portfolio review and “potential termination” of grants to Colorado in the days after the email.

Officials from within the U.S. Department of Agriculture swapped similar emails soon after the White House meeting. The log shows senior agency officials emailing each other about a new pilot program, which would have required Colorado to swiftly recertify Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility for 100,000 recipients. Some emails also included Emily Underwood, an assistant to Trump and the author of the initial “brainstorm” email.

_____