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Trump, who had already held out the possibility of a pardon for
Arpaio, decided against announcing it at a major rally in
Arizona on Tuesday night but suggested that he would step in at
some point.
"I'll make a prediction. I think he's going to be just fine,
okay? But I won't do it tonight because I don't want to cause
any controversy. But Sheriff Joe can feel good," he said.
Arpaio, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, was the
sheriff of Maricopa County in Phoenix before he lost a
re-election bid in 2016.
Last month a judge found him guilty of contempt for
intentionally defying a 2011 court order that barred his
officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists solely on
suspicion that they were in the United States illegally.
The judge in the underlying lawsuit, brought by the American
Civil Liberties Union and others in 2007, held that such traffic
stops were a violation of the motorists’ constitutional rights.
Arpaio, who was in office for 24 years, gained national
prominence for his treatment of jail inmates and crackdown on
undocumented immigrants.
Arpaio's situation resonated with the crowd of Trump supporters.
"Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe?" Trump asked,
sparking loud applause and a chant of "Pardon Joe!"
"Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?" Trump said.
His mention of Arpaio seemed to contradict comments by White
House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, who told reporters earlier in
the day that the subject would not come up.
"There will be no discussion of that today at any point and no
action will be taken on that front at any point today," she told
reporters traveling on Air Force One.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland, Editing by Sandra
Maler and Michael Perry)
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