Former Maricopa County birther posse sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently convicted for criminal contempt of federal court for refusing to obey a court order to halt his anti-immigrant patrols that relied on racial profiling.
Apraio himself seemingly requested a pardon from Trump last week and Trump now says he's considering it.
“I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,” Trump said Sunday in an interview with Fox News from his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is on a working vacation.
Trump told Fox News he could issue the pardon - his first as president - in the next few days, if he decides to do so.
I don't know if he'll actually do this, but he does have the power to do it. The president's power to pardon federal offenders is nearly absolute.
With that said, I don't know how he could possibly justify it and doing so would probably not sit well with the federal judiciary. Trump's advisers should and probably are advising him against it, but we know he rarely listens to anyone but the talking heads on Fox News.
It's also possible Trump will forget about this by tomorrow. He still hasn't followed through on, well, virtually anything except mass deportation. Perhaps that's a hint that he will pardon Arpaio. Institutional racism is the only thing holding the Trump regime together.