Pardoning Joe

Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer for president George W Bush, told the Guardian: “It was not done in the normal way where you have pardons done by the Department of Justice and then recommendations made to the president.

“It was done for political reasons and it is no coincidence that it was done on the same day as the firing of Sebastian Gorka. The problem is the ‘alt-right’, who are obsessed with ethnic supremacy and need something else to distract them, so they threw the pardon for Sheriff Joe into the mix. It certainly wasn’t appropriate.”

Painter added: “I don’t think the pardon will be challenged but we have potentially serious constitutional issues with President Trump. If he tries to use pardons with the Russia investigation, potentially pardoning members of his own family, there will be a ruckus.”

[...]

Bradley Moss, a national security attorney, argued: “By demonstrating his willingness to issue pardons without bothering with the trouble of bureaucratic due diligence or concerns about political backlash, President Trump has sent out a subtle and implicit message to [Michael] Flynn and [Paul] Manafort: hang tight, I have your back.

“He undoubtedly is attempting to forestall either of the two men (or their subordinates) from cooperating with Mueller beyond what’s legally required, with the unspoken reassurance hanging over the investigation that the president can wipe their criminal slates clean if Mueller gets too close.”

  The Guardian

Maybe. I'm not sure Trump thinks that far ahead. Scoring political points with his base at a time when he's painting himself into a corner is explanation enough.

The Phoenix New Times, meanwhile, published a searing Twitter thread that included the following posts, some of which linked to past articles about Arpaio: “He ran a jail that he described as a “concentration camp”… Prisoners there died at an alarming rate, often without explanation … One of his jailers nearly broke the neck of a paraplegic guy who had the temerity to ask for a catheter.

“One time, as a publicity stunt, he marched Latino prisoners into a segregated area with electric fencing … He ran an ongoing ‘mugshot of the day’ contest on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website … He arrested New Times reporters for covering him. We won a $3.75m settlement for that one … “Under him, the MCSO [Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office] failed to investigate hundreds of sex abuse cases, many of which involved children … But he somehow found time and money to send a deputy to Hawaii to look for Barack Obama’s birth certificate … Oh, and one time he staged an assassination attempt against himself? That was weird.”

[...]

Arpaio, 85, was sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, and came to personify the administration’s divisive crackdown on illegal immigration. He was an aggressive supporter of Trump’s election campaign and appeared alongside him at rallies. His extraordinary pardon was condemned by Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans.

[...]

On Friday night, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity: “I’m going to do a news conference early next week and get to the bottom of this and show the abuse of the judicial system and politics.

“I’m not going down without trying to defend myself.”

Doesn't have sense enough to take the pardon, shut his mouth and consider himself lucky.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.