Donald Trump May Circumvent the Usual Process to Pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio

[DonViejo]

These things usually take time and consideration. Arpaio hasn’t even been sentenced.

BETSY WOODRUFF
08.21.17 1:00 AM ET

President Donald Trump has learned about his power to issue pardons. And in the last week, White House aides have suggested that he use his first one on a controversial choice: Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the schismatic Arizona lawman convicted of contempt of court.

In recent days, speculation has mounted that Trump will follow through on this suggestion at a campaign rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. Should he do so, it will be a unique moment in modern presidential politics. Trump will have given the first pardon of his presidency to someone for what appears to be purely political reasons and he will have done so without going through the normal review process. Trump has yet to name a new pardon attorney and while the vast majority of people who get presidential pardons wait for at least five years after being sentenced, Arpaio hasn’t even been sentenced yet. The possibility has left some clemency advocates feeling a little queasy.

“There are literally hundreds of no-name people we’ve never heard of, who will never been in the newspaper, who are not cause célèbres, who have had applications waiting and waiting and waiting,” said P.S. Ruckman, political science professor at Northern Illinois University. “They’re sick to their stomach right now reading about Arpaio getting a potential pardon, that’s breaking their heart.”

Like George W. Bush and Barack Obama before him, Trump has proven stingy with the pardon power granted to the president. And that’s probably a generous way to put it. Two hundred days into his presidency, he has yet to pardon anyone. This isn’t unprecedented. It took Obama more than 600 days to issue a pardon. He nearly broke the record for fewest pardons, though he granted more clemencies than any other president by shortening the sentences of more than a thousand people.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-may-circumvent-the-usual-process-to-pardon-sheriff-joe-arpaio

[L. Coyote]

1. Insult the court system "FU, this guy wears my cap" ergo politics is more important than justice.

[FLPanhandle]

2. I disagree with the "unique moment in modern presidential politics" statement

"Should he do so, it will be a unique moment in modern presidential politics. Trump will have given the first pardon of his presidency to someone for what appears to be purely political reasons and he will have done so without going through the normal review process."

I would think Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon would meet that criteria too.

[Lochloosa]

6. Agree

[gratuitous]

7. I'd put George HW Bush's pardons in there, too

In the dead of night on Christmas Eve 1992, lame duck George HW Bush picked up his pardon pen and absolved Caspar Weinberger, Eliot Abrams, and others for their role in Iran/contra, a couple of weeks before their trial was about to start. A trial that many believed would present evidence that Bush was not "out of the loop" on the arms-for-hostages statecraft of the Republicans.

For some reason, those pardons never seem to make any of the popular media lists of egregious presidential pardons.

[dalton99a]

3. It's a given. He doesn't give a shit about rules or norms

[catbyte]

4. Arpaio had to have violated some state laws they could bust him on, please?

[spanone]

5. sheriff joe's 'controversies'

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029493287

[Initech]

8. This would be fucking scary if Donald goes through with this.

Especially given the toxic racist climate he's created. This would set an extremely horrible precedent. Don't do it, Donnie.