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US President Donald Trump on Friday granted a pardon to controversial former Arizona lawman and political ally Joe Arpaio less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving racial profiling.
Arpaio, 85, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" lost a bid for re-election in Arizona's Maricopa County in November after 24 years in office.
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He is known for his crackdown on undocumented immigrants and investigating unfounded Trump-supported claims questioning former President Barack Obama's citizenship.
Arpaio said his lawyer was sent a copy of the pardon on Friday afternoon and he planned a press conference to discuss what he said were new details in the case. He declined to say if he would run again for sheriff.
"I’m not going away," added Arpaio.
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Arpaio told Reuters that he would reveal more about the case on Monday or Tuesday and detail the “real story” behind the case that brought him to trial. He has long maintained that the prosecution by the administration under President Barack Obama was political, aimed at helping to oust him from office.
He said his attorney delivered the good news the same day as his wife’s birthday, adding “he came over to give my wife a birthday gift and it was a pretty good one,” said Arpaio, alluding to the pardon, as he was about to leave for her celebration dinner.
Civil rights advocates slammed Trump's decision as an endorsement of racist and unlawful immigration policies.
The pardon sent "a dangerous message that a law enforcement officer who abused his position of power and defied a court order can simply be excused by a president who himself clearly does not respect the law," Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the US Justice Department's civil rights division, said in a statement.
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Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said it was "disheartening that he set the bar so very low for his first pardon... The ex-sheriff is a self-aggrandising braggart who promoted racist law enforcement practices and cost taxpayers millions, and that is a reason they did not reelect him.”
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Arpaio admitted to inadvertently disobeying the court order but said his behaviour did not meet a criminal standard. He said the prosecution was a politically motivated attempt by the Obama administration to undermine his re-election bid.
Arpaio had been scheduled to be sentenced on 5 October and faced a fine and maximum sentence of six months in jail.
He reinstated chain gangs, made inmates wear uniforms that were pink or old-fashioned black and white stripes and forbade them coffee, salt and pepper.
The East Valley Times newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for a 2009 series showing that arrests in the county had dropped while many violent crimes were not investigated and response call times had increased.
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