Trump defends pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio

The president had alluded to the potential pardon at a rally held earlier in the week in Phoenix.

The president and Mr. Arpaio share a hard line on illegal immigration and unapologetic support of the police, and the former sheriff was an ardent backer of Mr. Trump’s campaign a year ago. Arpaio himself is now out of office, having lost his most recent election.

Arpaio was convicted in July of criminal contempt for disobeying a federal judge’s order on detaining individuals suspected of being in the US illegally.

Presidents have broad powers to pardon, so Trump is probably within his legal rights on this matter.

President Trump’s pardon late Friday of deposed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio undermines that promise [by Trump, during the campaign, to abide by the law] and further politicizes the law. The fact that Trump tried to bury the pardon news on Friday night – notwithstanding his convoluted explanation Monday that ratings would be high because people were watching TV reports of Hurricane Harvey – suggests he knew it was problematic.

But not everyone responded favorably to the news of Arpaio’s pardon. And the Maricopa County Sheriff Department is still under a court order to refrain from racial profiling and other illegal immigration enforcement efforts. A federal court found that he disobeyed the law.

The Washington Examiner ran an editorial titled “Trump, Once the Law and Order Candidate, Embraces Lawless Disorder with Arpaio Pardon”.

“We just can’t forget what they did here”, Hannity concluded.

Without any comment from Baca’s attorney, it’s hard to know what Trump thinks of Baca.

“One way or the other Mexico will pay for the wall”, Trump said, arguing that, while the project may initially be funded by United States taxpayers, “ultimately” Mexico will pay.

I am not the only one, Sheriff Arpaio even referred to his own jail as a type of “concentration camp” which he segregated prisoners by race. He is very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration.

While Trump’s pardon of Arpaio isn’t considered criminal, Congress does have the ability to include a controversial pardon by the president – as well as anything else they deem reasonable – in articles of impeachment.

President Trump drew criticism from across the political spectrum for pardoning the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” who was found guilty last month of refusing to follow a judge’s order barring him from racially profiling Latinos.