Special prosecutor to defend ruling
PHOENIX — A special prosecutor will be appointed in an appeal over the pardon of former metro Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s conviction for disobeying a court order because President Trump’s Justice Department is now refusing to handle the case, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the appointment because the Justice Department lawyers who won the conviction have since declined to defend a court ruling that dismissed the case but did not erase Arpaio’s criminal record after Trump issued the pardon.
Arpaio, a Trump ally, is running for a U.S. Senate seat and wants the court records related to his conviction expunged.
Legal advocacy groups that focus on free speech, democracy and civil rights had asked for the prosecutor and have mounted a challenge to Trump’s pardon of the former six-term sheriff, a Republican who lost to a little-known Democratic challenger in 2016.
A federal judge last summer found Arpaio guilty of contempt of court for intentionally defying a 2011 court order that barred his traffic patrols targeting immigrants.
Arpaio, now running for the Senate seat of outgoing Jeff Flake, was accused of prolonging the patrols for 17 months to boost his successful 2012 re-election campaign.
Jack Wilenchik, a lawyer representing Arpaio, accused the appeals court of appointing a special prosecutor because it did not like the outcome of the case.
“To be appointing a new lawyer is really the 9th Circuit taking a position on the case, which it shouldn’t be doing,” Wilenchik said.
Arpaio said the president made the right decision in issuing his pardon.
“I am not guilty,” Arpaio said. “To this day, I will say that.”
The groups opposed to Arpaio’s pardon are using the same appeals process to challenge clemency for him.
The pardon issued in late August spared the 85-year-old Arpaio a possible jail sentence.