WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump issued an executive pardon Friday to Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff, using his first act of presidential clemency to give reprieve to a political supporter known for his tough crackdown on illegal immigration.
The White House said the 85-year-old was a "worthy candidate" for a presidential pardon.
"Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration," the White House statement said.
Arpaio was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal court order to stop racially profiling Hispanics. He was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5 and faced a maximum of six months in jail.
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The former sheriff said Friday that he appreciates Trump pardoning him and that he'll always stand by the president. He also said he'll remain active politically now that he's no longer facing jail time.
The decision to pardon Arpaio came three days after a rally in Phoenix at which the president signaled his willingness to absolve the misdemeanor contempt-of-court conviction. It was Trump's first pardon as president.
"So was Sheriff Joe was convicted for doing his job?" Trump asked supporters at Tuesday's rally. "I'll make a prediction. I think he's going to be just fine, OK."
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey voiced support for the pardon, saying Arpaio "deserves credit for helping to reduce crime in Maricopa County over his long career in law enforcement and public office."
He said Trump's pardon "has brought finality to this chapter in Arizona's history."
The pardon marked a defeat for critics who believed that the lawman sowed divisions by making hundreds of arrests in crackdowns that separated immigrant families and promoted a culture of cruelty by housing inmates in outdoor tents during triple-digit heat and forcing them to wear pink underwear.
They say it removed the last chance at holding Arpaio legally accountable for what they say is a long history of misconduct, including the 2013 civil verdict in which the sheriff's officers were found to have racially profiled Hispanics in immigration patrols.
"Pardoning Joe Arpaio is a slap in the face to the people of Maricopa County, especially the Latino community and those he victimized as he systematically and illegally violated their civil rights," Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said.
Alessandra Soler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said, "The racist practices that Arpaio implemented and Trump foolishly admires are illegal and immoral, and no pardon will ever change that reality."
And the Arizona Latino Legislative Caucus said the pardon "is yet another display of disrespect to the Latino community in Arizona."
Arpaio was accused of prolonging the patrols for 17 months after a judge had ordered them stopped so that he could promote his immigration enforcement efforts in a bid to boost his ultimately successful 2012 re-election campaign. The decision to ignore the 2011 order is believed to have contributed to Arpaio's 2016 loss to retired Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone.
Arpaio acknowledged extending the patrols, but insisted it wasn't intentional, blaming one of his former attorneys for not properly explaining the importance of the court order and brushing off the conviction as a "petty crime."
He accused then-President Barack Obama of trying to influence the 2016 sheriff's race by announcing weeks before Election Day that his administration was willing to prosecute Arpaio.
But the charge itself wasn't filed by prosecutors. It was recommended by the judge who presided over the profiling case and was filed by another judge, who later found Arpaio guilty of the charge. Lawyers in Trump's Justice Department prosecuted the case at a five-day trial in late June and early July.
The TV interviews and news releases the lawman used over the years to help promote his immigration crackdowns and win re-election came back to bite him when the judge who found him guilty cited comments the sheriff made about keeping up the patrols, even though he knew he wasn't allowed.
The criminal case sprang from the profiling lawsuit that ultimately discredited Arpaio's immigration patrols and is expected to cost taxpayers $92 million by next summer.
Arpaio's office was accused in other instances of wrongdoing in the profiling case, though none led to criminal charges.
His office acknowledged throwing away or shredding some traffic-stop records during immigration patrols. The sheriff was accused of ordering some immigration patrols not based on reports of crime but rather on letters from Arizonans who complained about people with dark skin congregating in an area or speaking Spanish. And Arpaio was accused of investigating the judge who presided over the profiling case -- an allegation he vigorously denied.
The alliance between Trump and Arpaio centers heavily on immigration enforcement, such as getting police officers to take part in immigration enforcement. They also have questioned the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate and have a similar history in sparring with judges.
During the presidential campaign, Arpaio showered Trump with support. Trump, meanwhile, has invoked Arpaio's name in his calls for tougher immigration enforcement and used some of the same immigration rhetoric and advocated for tactics that made the former Arizona lawman a national name years earlier.
He appeared for Trump at rallies in Iowa, Nevada and Arizona, including a gathering in the affluent Phoenix suburb where the sheriff lives. Arpaio also gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in which he said Trump would prevent people from sneaking into the country.
It was Arpaio's roughly quarter-century as sheriff that gave him a national reputation for his tough treatment of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Repeated court findings against his office for civil-rights violations cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
In the early 1990s, Arpaio directed construction of a tent city for detainees, open to the burning Arizona sun, both to alleviate overcrowding and to underscore his aggressive enforcement measures.
He famously made prisoners wear pink underwear and handcuffs, reinstated chain gangs for men, women and youths, and cut out lunches.
"It's time to get tough around here," he said in 1993.
Arpaio embraced the nickname "America's Toughest Sheriff," and many Republican candidates sought his endorsement at election time.
Information for this article was contributed by Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News; by Eric Tucker, Jacques Billeaud and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press; by Jackie Calmes of the Tribune News Service.
A Section on 08/26/2017