ARPAIO PARDONED
Trump makes announcement Friday; ex-sheriff says he’s ‘very appreciative’
“I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!” PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON TWITTER ON FRIDAY, ANNOUNCING HIS PARDON OF FORMER SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO
President Donald Trump has pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his criminal-contempt conviction, removing the only legal consequences the lawman faced stemming from a long-running racial-profiling suit.
The White House announced the pardon Friday evening in a news release that recounted Arpaio’s lengthy career of “admirable service” in federal and local law enforcement and called him “a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Reached moments after the announcement, Arpaio said he had not spoken to Trump but that “I’m very appreciative of the president issuing that pardon. It shows how he backs up law enforcement.”
Arpaio told The Arizona Republic he learned of the president’s action from his lawyer, who visited him Friday at about 4 p.m. at Arpaio’s Fountain Hills home. The lawyer delivered Arpaio’s wife, Ava,
“Thethe authority President to has make this pardon, but doing so ... undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.” SEN. JOHN MCCAIN R-ARIZ., IN A STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PARDON OF FORMER SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO
a birthday gift, and “the other gift was the pardon,” said Arpaio, who added that he and his wife planned to celebrate over a dinner of spaghetti with calamari and red wine at a favorite Italian restaurant.
Arpaio, who lost a 2016 re-election bid ending 24 years in office, hinted the pardon could set up a political comeback: “I told my wife that I was through with politics. But now I’ve decided I’m not through with politics because of what’s happening. I didn’t ask for a pardon. It has nothing to do with a pardon. I’ve been saying this for the last couple of months. I’ve got a lot to offer.”
He said he would hold a news conference early next week to discuss the “abuse” of the justice system.
Arpaio, 85, was convicted of criminal contempt on July 31 and was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5. He faced up to six months in jail.
But Trump hinted that a pardon would be forthcoming.
Trump and Arpaio have enjoyed a close relationship since the early days of Trump’s presidential campaign. They share a hard-line stance on immigration, and Arpaio was one of the earliest public figures to offer Trump his full-throated endorsement.
Arpaio broached the topic of a presidential pardon himself two weeks after his conviction. He wondered aloud to a conservative blog where Trump was in his time of need, and told The Republic and other media outlets that he would welcome the relief.
Some Arizona Republicans praised Trump’s action.
In an emailed statement, Gov. Doug Ducey, whom Arpaio endorsed during Ducey’s 2014 run for governor, said the sheriff deserves credit for his long tenure in law enforcement and public service.
“The president clearly has pardoning powers under the United States Constitution, and with this action, he has brought finality to this chapter in Arizona’s history,” said the statement from the Republican governor. “Sheriff Joe is my friend, and now he, Ava and their family can move on and enjoy their retirement together.”
But Sen. John McCain said while the pardon is within the president’s authority, “doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”
Latino and migrant-rights leaders in Arizona said the pardon sent a message nationwide to officials, from police to judges: It’s OK for law enforcement to racially profile people of color and violate their civil rights.
“What’s scary is that this message is being sent not only to people in Arizona, it’s the message being sent to the country,” said Raquel Teran, a longtime community activist and organizer based in Phoenix.
Teran said her sister, an elementaryschool teacher, constantly heard her students talk about Arpaio and how they feared their parents could be taken away while the sheriff was in power.
“What second-grader knows the name of their county sheriff?” Teran said. “The immigrant and Latino children of Maricopa County knew.”
Activists said the pardon was particularly disheartening coming in the wake of the president’s statements on racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which many saw as Trump giving a pass to white supremacists.
Arpaio’s conviction was, in part, the result of Latinos’ efforts to document cases of racial profiling. The former sheriff’s conviction meant justice had finally been served, they said.
But following Trump’s pardon, Latinos faced the reality that Arpaio would never spend a night in jail.
Despite the disappointment, Latino leaders rallied their community Friday night. Phoenix immigration attorney Daniel Rodriguez, who gained legal status as a “dreamer,” said the president “is continuing to show us how despicable a human being he can be.”
Carlos Garcia, director of the immigrant-rights group Puente, said by pardoning Arpaio, Trump is showing he supports racial profiling.
Trump’s pardon is an insult to victims of Arpaio’s policing practices, he said. “Now he’s just spitting in their face, disregarding their pain and how they suffered in the hands of Arpaio,” he added.
The pardon had seemed all but inevitable.
Aug. 14 was the first time Trump spoke publicly about the issue, saying during a Fox News interview that he was “seriously considering” a get-out-of-jail card for the former sheriff.
Then, during Trump’s fiery speech Tuesday at the Phoenix Convention Center, he again signaled it was forthcoming.
“Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?” Trump asked the crowd, which was answered with a roar. “He should’ve had a jury, but you know what? I’ll make a prediction. I think he’s gonna be just fine, OK?”
Trump said he wouldn’t announce the pardon that evening because he didn’t want to create “controversy.”
Thousands of Democrats and members of local immigrant communities took to the streets surrounding the convention center during Trump’s rally to protest.
Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, said the county should sue the former sheriff. The racial-profiling case alone has a $92 million price tag, he said.
“We have an obligation to turn back to Sheriff Joe and say, ‘You should help pay for some of this cost,’ ” Gallardo said.
Meanwhile, many conservative Republicans voiced their approval.
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., called Arpaio’s prosecution partisan and welcomed the pardon, saying in a statement that it “reflects the very reason we voted President Trump into the Oval Office, to uphold the rule of law.”
Arpaio’s conviction stemmed from a decade-old racial-profiling case brought at the height of illegal-immigration crackdowns by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and others argued that Arpaio’s traffic stops and “saturation patrol” tactics were discriminatory because they singled out Latinos.
The class-action lawsuit resulted in a landmark victory for immigrationrights advocates.
But before the case went to trial, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow in 2011 ordered the department to stop detaining people solely on suspicion they were in the country illegally. They were to either arrest individuals for a state crime or let them be on their way.
In 2013, Snow found deputies had used race as a factor in their policing, and ordered sweeping reforms of the office’s policies. But Arpaio’s deputies continued business as usual for at least 17 more months. According to trial testimony, 171 people were illegally detained by MCSO deputies and turned over to federal immigration authorities.
Snow found Arpaio in civil contempt for violating his order, and forwarded the case for criminal contempt. Prosecutors from the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit prosecuted the case in a bench trial this summer before U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton.
Arpaio’s attorneys argued the violations were unintentional and that Arpaio delegated the court’s order to subordinates. Bolton flatly rejected that argument. In her ruling, she said evidence showed Arpaio’s “flagrant disregard” for Snow’s order.
Trump’s decision to pardon his political ally Arpaio might not have a major impact among all voters, but is sure to “intensify Hispanic concern about Trump,” one political expert said.
“For Donald Trump, the only law that counts is the law of loyalty to Trump,” said John J. “Jack” Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. “This could generate greater Hispanic anger and thereby greater Hispanic turnout (at the polls). In that respect, it’s consequential.”
Republic reporters Robert Anglen, Laura Gómez, Dianna M. Náñez and Maria Polletta contributed to this article.
Reaction of Joe Arpaio’s allies was swift and positive Friday after President Donald Trump pardoned the former sheriff.
His onetime Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, who was Arpaio’s right-hand man for the last years of his tenure, said he was happy for his former boss: “He didn’t deserve to be convicted in the first place. The (judge’s) order was not that clear. There was never any evidence he intended to disobey that order. This was the right thing to do, because he was not guilty.”
Sheridan said he spoke with Arpaio on Thursday. “He was holding his breath,” Sheridan said, adding that the former sheriff was concerned he would be sent to prison.
Sheridan said Arpaio intends to appeal the guilty verdict to have it cleansed from his record. The pardon does not do that.
“The president clearly has pardoning powers under the United States Constitution, and with this action, he has brought finality to this chapter in Arizona’s history. Sheriff Joe is my friend, and now he, Ava and their family can move on and enjoy their retirement together.” — Gov. Doug Ducey
“The federal court has spoken. The court of public opinion has spoken. The President has spoken. It’s time to move
Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, whose 2007 complaint led to the classaction racial-profiling lawsuit against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, said Friday that President Donald Trump’s pardon should worry the rest of the country.
“If they can do this, they are capable of doing the most vile actions,” Ortega Melendres said.
“The pardon doesn’t speak highly of