Democracy Has Prevailed.

October 28, 2017

Senator Toomey RESPONDS To Another Letter

A few days ago, I mentioned that I'd received a few responses from Senator Toomey. I am in a unique position now that I have, in effect, a backlog of Toomey responses to analyze.

We'll start, for no other reason other than it's the easiest, with the letter dated October 3, 2017.

It starts with:
Thank you for contacting me about President Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. I appreciate hearing from you.
Whew, that's a relief. There's absolutely no question that Senator Toomey is answering my 25th letter, dated August 29, 2017.

In it I asked whether he was OK with Trump's pardoning of Joe Arpaio. I wrote:
As you may know, Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for willfully violating a judge's order to stop "detaining persons for further investigation without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is being committed."

He was violating their constitutional rights. He was told to stop by a federal judge. He disregarded that order and then bragged about it.
And after using a very large paragraph explaining the issue back to me (and was that really necessary, Senator?), Pat Toomey wrote:
I recognize that the President has the legal authority to pardon Mr. Arpaio. However, I believe that the President should have allowed the legal proceedings against Mr. Arpaio to continue after his conviction.
I am taking this to mean that Senator Pat Toomey believes that Donald Trump should not have pardoned Joe Arpaio - at least at this point, which may be a loop hole. However, looking closely at the words Toomey chose, it seems to me that he left open the possibility of still supporting a pardon, if only a hypothetical one that could have been issued in the future.

Let me explain. In the last sentence of the paragraph immediately preceding the one I just quoted, Toomey writes that Arpaio was entitled to appeal his conviction (which is, of course, true) and then writes that Trump "should have allowed the legal proceedings against Mr. Arpaio to continue after his conviction" adding nothing further about the question at all. Nothing, for example, about whether pardoning Arpaio was a good idea or a bad idea - only that the legal proceedings should have continued. So he never fully answered my question as to whether he was OK with the pardon as he only seems to have an issue with it getting in the way of the process.

Did you catch that omission? I missed it early on, too.

So let me ask the hypothetical: had Trump stood aside until all of Arpaio's legal options were exhausted, would Toomey have then been for or against a pardon for the now-disgraced former sheriff?

But while it is, as I said, a hypothetical, you'll notice that Senator Toomey left that particular hypothetical option open. He never said he disagreed with the pardon.

Did you catch that? Did you?

The complete text:

Thank you for contacting me about President Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. I appreciate hearing from you.

The U.S. Constitution grants the President unilateral and broad authority to issue pardons for federal crimes. Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 states, "The President shall...have power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."

As you know, on August 25 2017, President Trump issued a pardon to Mr. Arpaio. On July 31, 2017, after a trial before a federal judge, Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt of court for violating a federal court order. The judge found that Mr. Arpaio, while serving as sheriff, willfully violated a court order directing him and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to stop detaining individuals based solely on the suspicion that they were illegal immigrants. Mr. Arpaio was scheduled to be sentenced by the judge in October 2017. He was facing a maximum of six months imprisonment. Mr Arpaio was entitled to appeal his conviction.

I recognize that the President has the legal authority to pardon Mr. Arpaio. However, I believe that the President should have allowed the legal proceedings against Mr. Arpaio to continue after his conviction.

I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this matter. Thank you again for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.

1 comment:

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

"He was violating their constitutional rights."

Joe Arpaio was never convicted of violating anyone's constitutional rights.

Joe Arpaio is just a typical member of the Law Enforcement caste who violate peoples constitutional rights everyday and are never held accountable because of Qualified Immunity.