Free Republic

Former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio narrowly lost his campaign to get his old job back Friday, ending a nearly successful comeback for one of the state's most polarizing figures. Arpaio, who held the position from 1993-2017, lost the GOP primary for the job to 40-year department veteran and Arpaio aide Jerry Sheridan by just over 6,000 votes when the Maricopa County Elections Department called the race. The two contenders were separated just 1 percent, 37-36.

Joe Arpaio would like you to know that Joe Arpaio is not going away. That is precisely what some in Arizona fear. “Joe Arpaio's decision to run for sheriff is a disaster for Republicans,” wrote an Arizona Republic columnist. Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, gave money to Penzone, a Democrat. ETC. Hit piece on Arpaio by aol.com.

Joe Arpaio announced Sunday that he will seek a seventh term as the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, promising to reopen his infamous tent city jail and bring back controversial jail policies that drew the ire of civil rights advocates and made him a darling of tough-on-crime conservatives. Arpaio, who called himself "America's toughest sheriff" during his 24-year run, said he'll challenge incumbent Paul Penzone in the 2020 sheriff's race. Penzone, a Democrat, unseated Arpaio in 2016 for the job. “On this day, August 25, 2019, after consultation and approval from my wife of 61 years, Ava, I have decided...

During the June 21 edition of the “Freedom Friday” radio show, former Maricopa County, AZ “Cold Case Posse” leader Mike Zullo reminded host Carl Gallups’s audience that former Special Counsel/former FBI Director Robert Mueller “defended” the NSA’s widespread, warrantless surveillance of American citizens in June 2013, the same month former CIA contractor Edward Snowden publicly revealed the depth and breadth of the NSA’s capabilities. Friday’s hour-long interview touched on numerous topics, including the “Mueller report” on alleged “collusion” between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Kremlin; government spying; Facebook’s censoring of the “Freedom Friday” show; sinister computer intrusions, including those...

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost his bid at the Supreme Court on Monday challenging a lower court’s appointment of a special prosecutor in his criminal case. Arpaio earned a national reputation for harsh conditions in the Arizona prisons he ran for a quarter century, before losing his 2016 reelection bid. Arpaio was found in criminal contempt of court in 2017 for not following a judge’s orders to stop traffic patrols that targeted illegal immigrants. President Trump then pardoned the former Maricopa County sheriff. Arpaio, 86, is now attempting to vacate his conviction. At issue in the Supreme Court...

A political ad from President Donald Trump that shows a Mexican immigrant bragging about killing police officers has put the spotlight back on noted immigration hard-liner Joe Arpaio, who detained and released the man in the video years ago. The former six-term sheriff of metro Phoenix says he’s being unfairly blamed for releasing the immigrant depicted in the video that has stoked immigration anxieties in the days leading up to the midterm elections. The ad centers on Luis Bracamontes, who was convicted of murder in the 2014 shooting deaths of two sheriff’s deputies in California while he was in the...

Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who lost his U.S. Senate bid in August, filed a lawsuit against The New York Times and one of its opinion writers over an opinion piece that he says contains ''several false, defamatory factual assertions" that he claims damage his chances of running for office again. Arpaio, 86, is seeking $147.5 million in damages, as well as attorney fees. The suit, filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that New York Times writer Michelle Cottle purposely made malicious statements that would negatively affect a bid for the late Sen. John...

Pretty decisive Only 29% for Ward. Blame Arpaio I guess. Ward is now damaged for the 2020 McCain rerun. We can only hope that turnout was high.

There is no love lost between state Sen. Kelli Ward and Rep. Martha McSally, the two top Arizona Republicans vying to represent the party in November's Senate election. But their race has grown so contentious roughly a month before Republican voters pick their nominee that Ward, who's challenging McSally from the right, is making the case that it would be "disingenuous" for her to support McSally should the sitting congresswoman win the nomination. Arizona is one of the few states where Democrats believe they are in a position to flip a Senate seat this fall. Arizona narrowly backed President Donald...

PHOENIX (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department says an appeals court overstepped its bounds when it ordered the appointment of a special prosecutor to pursue an appeal involving a pardon of retired Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The appointment was previously ordered by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.{snip} The Justice Department said in its appellate brief that “the government does not abdicate the prosecutorial function when it agrees with a defendant on a legal question.” Arpaio’s attorneys argued that appointing a special prosecutor “raises serious questions about whether the court is actively participating in the prosecution...."

Lotta agita over this on both sides of political media today, I think because Pence is still held to a slightly higher standard than Trump is. He spent most of his career as a dogmatic conservative and even endorsed Ted Cruz (verrrry reluctantly) over Trump before the Indiana primary in 2016. He gets the same benefit of the doubt from the politerati that Kellyanne Conway does: He and she are old hands in D.C. and therefore they’re supposed to “know better.” Trump calling a guy a champion of the rule of law who once referred to his own prison as...

Dissenting judge on panel worries ruling could foster ‘inappropriate… political attacks’ on presidencyA federal appeals court said this week it will appoint a lawyer to argue that former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s contempt of court conviction should remain on his record despite President Trump’s pardon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that since the federal Justice Department is supporting both the pardon and Mr. Arpaio’s request to have his conviction stricken, someone else needs to argue the other side. Mr. Arpaio argues that the pardon came before he had a chance to appeal his conviction, and even before...

WHO “GOT” TO HER?On Saturday night’s edition of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” host Jeanine Pirro erroneously stated that the question of a falsified “long-form” birth certificate purportedly issued by the state of Hawaii on behalf of Barack Hussein Obama had been “solved.” The segment began by showing a clip of President Donald Trump expressing optimism that Congress will address the “DACA” issue dealing with illegals now in their 20s and 30s who were brought to the U.S. as children by family members. The DACA program, instituted by Obama by executive action, is set to expire on March 5, with Trump...

Controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Wednesday called former President Barack Obama's birth certificate a "phony document" in an interview on CNN. "No doubt about it, we have the evidence, I'm not going to go into all the details, yeah, it's a phony document," Arpaio said on "Cuomo Primetime." Arpaio announced Tuesday that he is running for the Arizona US Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Jeff Flake, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term. He was a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump during the campaign, and was pardoned by the President in August. The...

An Arizona jury has refused to award damages against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at a civil trial for bringing a since-dismissed criminal case against one of Sen. Jeff Flake's sons in the heat-exhaustion deaths of 21 dogs. Jurors deliberated nearly an hour before ruling late Thursday against Austin Flake and his then-wife Logan Brown in their malicious-prosecution lawsuit stemming from Arpaio's investigation into the heat-exhaustion deaths of 21 dogs at a kennel operated by Flake's in-laws. Flake and Brown, who were in college at the time, were caring for the dogs while the in-laws were out of town.

Former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio told The Daily Beast Thursday that he is “seriously, seriously, seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate” to replace the retiring Jeff Flake. The Daily Beast reached out to Arpaio shortly after Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., announced his resignation over discussions with two female staffers about whether they would consider being a surrogate mother. […] Should Arpaio enter the race, he would be joining a crowded Republican primary field that includes Rep. Martha McSally and former state senator Kelli Ward. Ward, who was leading Flake by 26 points in one poll taken before...

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona jurors who will decide a malicious-prosecution trial against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio were told that one of Sen. Jeff Flake's sons suffered from depression as a result of a now-dismissed animal cruelty case that the lawman brought against him. The jury was told on the opening day of the civil trial that Austin Flake and his ex-wife Logan Brown still suffer emotional distress from the charges they faced when 21 dogs at a kennel operated by the younger Flake's in-laws died from heat exhaustion. The Flakes were watching the dogs while the in-laws were in Florida....

Even as Democrats publicly and loudly decry corporatist political “dark money,” billionaire Democrats and other donors funnel hundreds of millions to radical and violent causes.   Barely a week had passed after Donald Trump’s historic upset in the November 8 presidential election, but some of the world’s richest individuals were already launching a counteroffensive. George Soros and his fellow deep-pocket funders of the Democratic Party and left-wing causes gathered with a lineup of party activists and luminaries from Hollywood, K Street, and Wall Street for a three-day “investment conference” (November 15-17) at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C....

A federal judge on Wednesday upheld President Donald Trump’s pardon earlier this year of 85-year-old former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, rejecting legal challenges by outside groups. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said that she had considered the petitions filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and other organizations, including one staffed by lawyers who worked for former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, but found no legal grounds to overturn the pardon. Bolton did not rule on a request by Arpaio’s attorneys to take the further step of vacating his conviction. Trump, a Republican who has promised to build...

A federal judge has upheld the validity of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's pardon despite claims from critics that letting his clemency stand would encourage officials to disobey future court orders. Judge Susan Bolton cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent Wednesday when she formally dismissed the criminal case against the former six-term sheriff of metro Phoenix. Two months ago, Bolton found Arpaio guilty of disobeying a court order to stop his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. The ruling comes five weeks after President Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio's conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order to stop his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants....