Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Saturday that he did not know that President Donald Trump was going to pardon him until the White House emailed the document to his lawyer Friday afternoon.
“I didn’t know when a pardon was coming officially until yesterday when they faxed the pardon itself to my lawyer,” Arpaio, 85, told host Steve Malzberg in an interview for WMAL Radio in Woodbridge, Va.
“It was a good present for my wife,” he added, referring to his wife, Ava, who just turned 86. “It was her birthday.”
Trump pardoned Arpaio, the longtime tough-talking former sheriff of Maricopa County, of federal contempt of court charges for refusing to stop his crackdown on illegal immigrants.
He had been convicted July 31 by a U.S. district court judge and faced a maximum prison term of six months at sentencing in October.
Arpaio told Malzberg that he was “humbled” by President
