Pardoned the unpardonable
Lawrence Douglas
... This is hardly an ordinary exercise of the power to pardon, granted to the president under the terms of the constitution. The constitution gives the president the power to pardon to serve the interests of justice and mercy – to correct cases in which federal courts have acted with unwarranted severity ...
... Trump .. acted in contempt of this principle. Arpaio .. systematically abused his powers ... Most notoriously, Arpaio commanded his police to detain people solely on the suspicion that they were illegal immigrants, even in cases where the “suspects” had violated no state law. This amounted to a blanket invitation to terrorize the domestic population ...
In 2011, a federal district court judge, a Republican appointee, ordered Arpaio to stop ... Arpaio acted in open defiance, placing himself above the federal judiciary and the rule of law. Last month, he was properly convicted of criminal contempt ...
Lacking the vision, tenacity, commitment and acumen to govern and shape policy, Trump contents himself with acts of spiteful erasure, gestures of teardown that require no more effort than a tweet or a signature ...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/26/why-donald-trump-pardoned-joe-arpaio-arizona
