Christie: I wouldn't have pardoned Arpaio

Source: Politico




By LOUIS NELSON 08/30/2017 09:28 AM EDT

Controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio was not deserving of the pardon he was granted last week by President Donald Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday morning, because he has been unwilling to admit guilt or show contrition for the crime he was convicted of.

“I think the pardon power is an extraordinary power for any executive, both the governor, and I’ve used it, and the president. My understanding has always been that one of the prerequisites you look for in giving a pardon is contrition for what you were convicted of,” Christie said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I didn't see that in sheriff Arpaio. And so to me, one of the things that you need an acknowledgment of is an acknowledgment of guilt, first off, is required for pardon.”

Arpaio, a former sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, was convicted last month of contempt of court for his office’s refusal to obey a court order requiring it to cease immigration enforcement practices that included the racial profiling of Latinos. Trump pardoned the former sheriff last Friday, one of a flurry of controversial moves made during Hurricane Harvey, which was drawing significant media coverage at that time as it made landfall along the Texas coast.

The former sheriff, who was defeated in a reelection bid last November, gained notoriety over the course of his more than two decades in office for his hardline stance on illegal immigration and for his unapologetic operation of a jail with some of the nation’s harshest conditions. He was a vocal supporter of Trump’s during the 2016 election and thanked the president last Friday “for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/30/trump-pardon-joe-arpaio-chris-christie-242168