Reports: Delay in Arpaio Pardon

IS THE “DEEP STATE” AT WORK AGAIN?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 25, 2017) — Infowars and CBS News have reported that the expected presidential pardon for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio has apparently been delayed.

In a column on Friday, Infowars’ Dr. Jerome Corsi referenced a CBS report published on Wednesday citing unnamed White House attorneys reportedly urging President Donald Trump to delay the issuance of the pardon until after Arpaio is sentenced on October 5 for his conviction on a criminal misdemeanor charge.

Corsi also cited a letter hand-delivered on Friday from Arpaio’s attorney, Mark Goldman, to White House counsel Donald F. McGann II questioning the accuracy of the CBS article and arguing that a delay in granting the pardon could further hurt the 85-year-old, six-term Sheriff.

“Hopefully this is more fake news,” Goldman wrote, using a phrase often invoked by Trump to describe the mainstream media.

In the letter, Goldman revealed that McGann or someone representing him telephoned Arpaio directly “early last week” to ask if he would “accept a pardon.” To date, the details of the impending declaration, also reported by Fox News’s Gregg Jarrett on Monday, had not been made public.

At a Tuesday evening rally in Arizona, Trump had referenced the pardon when he asked his audience if they believed “Sheriff Joe” had been convicted for “doing his job.”  To resounding applause, Trump assured the crowd of Arpaio, “I think he’s gonna be just fine,” and “But I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy. But Sheriff Joe should feel good.”

The conviction arose from a civil case filed by a number of Hispanic plaintiffs in late 2007 alleging that Arpaio’s patrol units intended to apprehend illegal aliens in Maricopa County violated their civil rights. On December 23, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow ordered the patrols to cease.

However, the immigration units continued to operate through mid-2013, after which Arpaio was accused of civil contempt for disobeying Snow’s order.  Although offering to make restitution out of his personal funds, Snow insisted on going to trial.

In April 2015, hearings took place during which Snow attempted to determine whether or not Arpaio intentionally violated his order. In May 2016, Snow ruled Arpaio to have been in civil contempt and referred the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona for criminal prosecution.

The U.S. attorney, citing a conflict of interest, deferred to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced it would prosecute just days before early voting was to begin as Arpaio sought a seventh term.

Arpaio lost the election and faced trial without a jury in late June.  On July 31, U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton declared Arpaio convicted via an email sent to his attorneys as related in Goldman’s letter and additional motions filed with the court last week.

As has been reported previously, Arpaio’s attorneys claim that their client was prosecuted under an erroneous statute as a result of the appropriate law’s statute of limitations having already expired by the time prosecution commenced.

In three recent interviews, Arpaio has indicated that he personally feels he was the subject of a “witch hunt” after 55 years in law enforcement and serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Corsi has termed the prosecution “political” and a result of Arpaio’s commissioning of a criminal investigation into an image posted on the White House website purported to represent Barack Hussein Obama’s “long-form” birth certificate.  The five-year investigation declared in early March that the image is a “computer-generated forgery,” a claim the Obama White House never addressed.

“We do not want the good intentions of the President hijacked by the mainstream media, partisan politics, entrenched civil servants, and any desire they may have to thwart and derail the President’s prerogative,” Goldman ended his letter.