Trump Pressure on Sessions in Arpaio Case Is “Disgraceful”

Washington, D.C., August 28, 2017 – In response to reports that prior to pardoning former Maricopa County, AZ, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, President Trump sought Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s intervention in the federal case against Arpaio, AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:

“President Trump has demonstrated once again that he neither understands nor respects the rule of law and our justice system. It was bad enough that he pardoned Joe Arpaio, a person who systematically engaged in aggressive racial profiling, illegal detention of Latino and Latina community members, prisoner mistreatment, and other egregious civil rights violations. Now we know that Trump sought the help of the Attorney General in a disgraceful effort to drop the case against Arpaio, an action that seems to fit a pattern of Trump’s. Of course, this makes us even more alarmed that Trump, a president with no regard for the courts and the law, is rushing to nominate people to the federal bench.  It raises serious questions about the expectations this president might have of these people as well as the nominees’ commitment to remaining independent of the executive and the ‘favors’ he so clearly demands.”