The judicial clerk for the judge who ruled against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his 2011 racial profiling case said Tuesday the judge has been unfairly trashed.
Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff who was pardoned by President Donald Trump earlier this week, was ordered to stop racial profiling in 2011 by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow. Arpaio and his deputies resisted Snow's order, though, and in 2015 the sheriff was found in civil contempt of court. The Department of Justice the following year announced it would charge Arpaio with criminal contempt of court.
Arpaio on Aug. 25 called the conviction "a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department" and Trump said the former sheriff was treated "unbelievably unfairly."
Snow, who was appointed by George W. Bush, "took pains to ensure that the trial was procedurally fair," said the clerk, Andrew Case.
"Arpaio now calls him 'liberal' – this is flatly false," he added on Twitter. "He is ideologically conservative and deeply devoted to the rule of law."
Case, who is now an author, also wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post defending Snow.
He said his former boss ignored incendiary emails found on a backup server outside of Arpaio's control, which included racist jokes about Hispanics.
"But Snow ignored these incendiary emails and focused on the evidence relevant to the case — Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office equated being Hispanic with being unlawfully present in the country," Case wrote. "Their written orders directed officers to stop cars when the drivers and passengers appeared Hispanic. Full stop."
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