Democrats Want to Invalidate Trump’s Pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

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May 9, 2019

House Democrats moved last week to invalidate a pardon granted to former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio on the grounds that it takes power away from the judiciary branch.

“House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a member of the House leadership, were among the lawmakers who filed a brief last week to urge a federal appeals court in California to invalidate one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial pardons,” said Roll Call. 

Trump pardoned Arpaio in 2017 after he was convicted of contempt for disobeying a federal judge’s order mandating that he not detain people suspected of being in the country illegally. Arpaio dismissed the conviction as a “political witch hunt.” The pardon was praised by Arizona governor Doug Doucey, but denounced by the usual open-borders shills in the GOP establishment – late Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

Now, Democrats want to re-litigate Arpaio’s pardon in their ongoing effort to disrupt the Trump administration at all costs. Coming off an embarrassing two-year conspiracy theory about Russian “collusion” which turned out to be another political witch hunt, the party is grasping at straws to find a message. Some have yet to accept the findings of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, and instead are choosing to remain in denial.

“Nadler, Swalwell and the other Democratic members of Congress, in the brief, told the 9th Circuit that Trump’s pardon of a contempt of court charge infringed on the power of the judicial branch to impose sanctions for disobedience — just like a pardon of a contempt of Congress charge would infringe on the power of the legislative branch,” the report said.

Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee held Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress for ignoring their orders to testify in front of them regarding the results of the Russian “collusion” investigation.

Some believe that challenging Arpaio’s pardon is a test-run by Democrats to see what would happen in the event that Trump decides to pardon Barr.

Leave it to the Democratic Party to use a decorated Sheriff, who dedicated his life to keeping America safe, as a political pawn in a plot to oppose Trump.

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