They might be old and hanging low, but that guy has some cojones. Get this: Within a few days of receiving a presidential pardon, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio cranked up his money-making machine and started to solicit donations online from gullible goobers nationwide, to help pay his legal bills after being convicted of contempt of court. Not only that, Arpaio thought out loud (never a good idea) about taking on Donald Trump’s least favorite Senator, Jeff Flake, in the 2018 primary.
Wow, a week ago Joe Arpaio was an 85-year-old has-been, a convicted criminal who was finally defeated at the ballot box. Then a few days later he gets a pardon, arranges for suckers to pay his legal fees, has his mug splashed across TV screens 24/7, and considers running for the U.S. Senate. Some cojones.
As of today they’re even bigger, reports the Arizona Republic:
Attorneys for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio asked a U.S. District Court judge on Monday to vacate Arpaio's criminal contempt-of-court conviction in light of his presidential pardon.
Arpaio’s lawyers said they’ll appeal if the judge does not vacate the conviction because, according to their motion, “The president’s pardon moots the case, and it warrants an automatic vacatur of all opinions, judgments, and verdicts related to the criminal charge.” No, if the verdict is annulled the pardon is meaningless, like it never happened. A pardon implies an admission of guilt, which should never be forgotten, and there’s no fucking way Trump’s pardon, which was simply a nod to his supremacist base, will change our “opinions [and] judgments” of Joe Arpaio.
The sheriff’s lawyers also argue that he’s not a racist because he was not convicted of racial profiling, despite what many reporters write. True, the recent contempt of court conviction was not about race itself, but it came about because Arpaio ignored a judge’s order to quit being a racist dick. Further, that court order stemmed from the Melendrez civil lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which Arpaio lost and which was about racial profiling.
The phrase “racial profiling” may not appear in the recent guilty verdict that could land Arpaio’s butt in the clinker, but according to Rose Mary Wilcox, a Latina and former county commissioner who successfully sued Arpaio for his politically motivated attacks on her, "No matter how he tries to cover up the words, racial profiling was the underlying cause in both the civil and criminal charges.”
Arpaio can claim he’s not a racist, although 24 years of racist policies, practices and lawsuits prove otherwise, and Trump will even back him up, because he knows a thing or two about racists. And there’s this:
’[H]e is loved in Arizona," Trump said. "I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him, right before the election voting started."
No, no he is not loved in Arizona. He is loved by a segment of white retired bigots from elsewhere, as well as our own homegrown rednecks. Arpaio is actually hated in the state’s largest cities—Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Tempe—where he could not get elected dog catcher, which is why his idea of running for U.S. Senate is bonkers: he’d never win a statewide race. Heck, even conservative voters in Maricopa County rejected his sorry ass last year, because he’s not a good lawman, because he cost taxpayers tens of millions in lost court cases and because he is a racist.
Trump complains that Arpaio was “treated unbelievably unfairly” because the contempt of court verdict was announced during last year’s campaign. Let’s ask the thousands of inmates holed up in Tent City hell, the inmates tortured or killed, the inmates who had life-saving medicines withheld, the judges and journalists harassed and indicted, and the countless families swept up in Arpaio’s immigration task force raids how they feel about his “unfair” treatment.
And FYI Trump: the DOJ brought the original case against Arpaio during the GWB administration, ten years ago. The reason it went on so long is because Arpaio’s team destroyed documents, withheld evidence and were uncooperative at every turn. That’s why the verdict came down last year during election season. And the judge who passed sentence? Murray Snow, a Bush appointee. So take your “Obama witch hunt” BS and shove it!
Arpaio’s guilty verdict should never be expunged from the record. History should accurately reflect what he did, and history should also remind us what Trump’s pardon of a racist means.