Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio (right), an outspoken immigration opponent, has long backed President Donald Trump. Trump pardons former Sheriff Arpaio

President Donald Trump pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, according to a White House announcement.

The White House broke the news just after 8 p.m. and laid out the case for why the 85-year-old Arpaio — to some a symbol of animosity toward immigrants and Hispanics — deserved the president’s first such reprieve. The announcement highlighted Arpaio’s military service and “his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.”


Arpaio, who lost a reelection bid for sheriff in November 2016, took to Twitter to thank the president.

"Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!" Arpaio wrote. "I am humbled and incredibly grateful to President Trump. I look fwd to putting this chapter behind me and helping to #MAGA."

Arpaio later vowed, during an appearance on Fox News, to speak out against the “abuse of the judicial system in politics” in light of his conviction.

The move was widely anticipated — mainly because Trump himself suggested at a rally earlier this week that he planned to pardon the controversial lawman, who was convicted of criminal contempt in a racial profiling case and faced up to six months in jail.

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"I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine. Okay?" Trump told a crowd at the rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. "But I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy. Is that okay? All right? But Sheriff Joe can feel good."

Trump touted Arpaio's lifetime of "selfless public service" in the White House's official announcement Friday. The president had cast Arpaio's conviction earlier in the week as unfair, saying he'd been "convicted for doing his job."

Pardons for individuals who haven't been sentenced aren't common, but Obama issued two. One went to a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Cartwright, who had pleaded guilty to lying in a leak investigation. Another went to an Iranian who pleaded guilty in a computer hacking case but had not been sentenced. Obama also pardoned three businessmen of Iranian origin who were awaiting trial for export violations.

Arpaio never filed an application for the pardon with the Justice Department, an administration official told POLITICO.

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has sparred with the president in recent days, expressed disappointment that Trump did not allow Arpaio's conviction to make its way through the sentencing phase.

"Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course," Flake tweeted Friday night.

Sen. John McCain, Arizona's other Republican senator, similarly rebuked the action, saying in a statement that while the president acted within his rights, the pardon "undermines [Trump's] claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), an outspoken critic of Trump, blasted Arpaio's "racist and unconstitutional police practices," adding that, "Trump's pardon of Arpaio is unconscionable and unworthy of the White House."

Civil liberties and immigrant rights groups reacted with disgust after the White House released news of the pardon Friday night. Less than two weeks prior, Trump set off a racially charged firestorm when he said “both sides” were to blame for violence at a gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, that drew white nationalists, Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis.

During his 24 years as Maricopa County sheriff, Arpaio cultivated a reputation as a zealous opponent of illegal immigration. He dressed jail detainees in pink boxer shorts, ostensibly so they wouldn’t be stolen, and housed them in an open-air “tent city” exposed to Arizona’s withering heat.

He gained supporters among immigration hawks — Trump included. After Trump surged into view as a serious candidate for the Republican presidential election, he won the endorsement of Arpaio in January 2016.

“Everybody knows I’ve been with him anyway these last two years, so I’m not changing, pardon or no pardon,” Arpaio told POLITICO earlier this month. “But if he wants to do it, I’ll accept it.”

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.