Thank you VERY MUCH for your support. Now I’ll pardon you for your crimes.
- Aug 25, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 27, 2024
August 26: On This Day In 2017
Joe Arpaio was quite the character. The GOP sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County for 20+ years, he called himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” In one of his stunts, he erected a “Tent City” jail—which he himself proudly dubbed a “concentration camp”--to house convict overflow.
But he was known mostly for enforcing draconian border laws which were so harsh that they were later struck down by SCOTUS. He and his force were accused of so much police misconduct, especially along racist lines, that a Federal Court Monitor had to be appointed to oversee the force.
And the Dept. of Justice proclaimed his department to be engaged in the worst pattern of racial profiling in United States history. Arpaio also, of course, was a prominent questioner of Obama’s birth certificate.
Would it shock you to learn that Arpaio was an early and vocal Trump supporter? Trump gleefully bragged about it: “When Sheriff Joe gives you an endorsement, you know you’re the king of the border, right?”
But Arpaio committed his own crimes too: In 2017, Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt for violating a federal judge’s order to stop detaining Latino drivers. For 18 months after the court order, Arpaio continued his program of racial profiling, ultimately drawing the conviction.
The truly momentous, impactful pardon: OTDI 2017, Donald Trump issued the first pardon of his presidency to...Sheriff Joe Arpaio. It was a controversial action, taken (of course) without consulting the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney. And it certainly seemed like a reward for the sheriff’s early endorsement. Besides, Trump knew, it would be catnip to his MAGA base.
But that part’s not what’s important right now. Here’s why the Arpaio pardon really mattered: At the same time Trump was helping his buddy, Robert Mueller was busy probing into his ties to Russia. In that investigation, the testimony of campaign manager Paul Manafort and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could have made or broken the president.
The Arpaio pardon was a real-world demonstration to all of Trump’s staffers that Trump could reward them if they ignored the law and instead remained loyal to Donald Trump.
Sure enough, he did indeed end up pardoning both Manafort and Flynn after their convictions.
This is banana republic stuff.
Dive Deeper
YouTube has the video of Arpaio calling Tent City his “concentration camp”
ABC News reported on Arpaio’s Trump endorsement
NPR reported on Arpaio’s conviction
Here's the Arpaio pardon story
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump pardons his friends, Arpaio