Trump divides own party in pardoning Arpaio

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio, using his first act of presidential clemency to give reprieve to a political supporter known — and criminally convicted — for
his tough crackdown on illegal
immigration.
“Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon,” the White House said in a statement. Trump lauded Arpaio for his “life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.” Arpaio, one of Trump’s earliest supporters, was convicted of federal misdemeanor criminal contempt this year after a judge found he had defied a court order to stop targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. By pardoning Arpaio, Trump threatened to further inflame national tensions over race and immigration while also alienating some of the Republicans who have touted the importance of the rule of law. Arpaio, who served for 24 years as the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, was defeated in last year’s election. “I have to thank the president of the United States,” Arpaio said in a telephone interview. “I feel vindicated.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican, was among those taking issue with Trump’s decision. “Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States,” according to an email from Ryan’s office. “We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.”
Trump didn’t vet the pardon through the Justice Department, according to an official with knowledge of the decision who asked not to be identified. That circumvented the traditional political process for issuing pardons.
The website of the department’s pardon attorney states, “All requests for executive clemency for federal offenses are directed to the Pardon Attorney for investigation and review.” Justice Department guidelines say pardon requests shouldn’t be made until five years have passed between a conviction or completion of a sentence.
However, the president can grant a pardon “to any individual he deems fit, irrespective of whether an application has been filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney,’’ and at any time after the commission of an offense, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Arpaio was convicted in July
and has yet to be sentenced. He would have faced a maximum
of six months in jail, though his
age and lack of previous convictions may have led to a more
lenient sentence.
Despite Trump’s praise, critics have said Arpaio’s persecution of illegal immigration promoted racial profiling. Arpaio also pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.