Trump pardons former Arizona sheriff
Joe Arpaio had been convicted of violating a court order to stop racially profiling. He faced 6 months in jail.
WASHINGTON — President Trump issued an executive pardon Friday to Joe Arpaio, the controversial former Arizona sheriff who was a hero to the right and a national nemesis of Latinos, immigration advocates and civil rights groups.
Arpaio, 85, was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latinos. He was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and faced a maximum of six months in jail.
“Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is [a] worthy candidate for a presidential pardon,” a statement issued by the White House said.
The president has broad power under the Constitution to pardon people convicted of federal crimes. Trump had all but promised to pardon Arpaio in tweets and comments in recent weeks, yet acknowledged the political furor his pardon was likely to ignite.
“I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy,” Trump told a raucous political rally in Phoenix on Aug. 22. He added, “I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine.”
Arpaio did not attend the Phoenix rally because he did not get a White House invitation and did not “want to cause any havoc,” he told The Times in an interview a day earlier. He also said he had not spoken with the president since Trump took office.
By week’s end, though, the Trump administration issued the statement announcing the pardon, citing Arpaio’s long years of “selfless public service” that began with his enlistment during the Korean War and continued through his years as a police officer, special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration and, finally, a highly controversial sheriff in Arizona.
“Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration,” the White House statement said.
During his trial, Arpaio was found guilty of ignoring a court’s order to cease patrols that racially profiled Latinos and stopped them on suspicion they were in the country illegally. In November, Arpaio lost his bid for a seventh term after a race in which his hardline record was a top issue.
The bond between Trump and Arpaio first formed over their shared false belief that Barack Obama probably wasn’t born in the United States and thus was a usurper president. Obama was born in Hawaii.
After Trump entered the presidential race in 2015, Arpaio invited him to Phoenix to talk about a crackdown on illegal immigration. He endorsed Trump just before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses last year and became a frequent campaign surrogate.
Trump had told Fox News that he was seriously considering pardoning Arpaio. “He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He’s a great American patriot, and I hate to see what has happened to him,” the president said.
As White House aides prepared paperwork for the pardon — reportedly without the usual assistance of Justice Department lawyers — they also drafted talking points for supporters to defend the president’s action.
Those argued that the aging Arpaio didn’t deserve jail after his decades of service to the country.