Arpaio didn’t just let an order by a federal judge slip his mind. No, he deliberately violated it. Repeatedly.

Specifically, Arpaio was convicted this July by Judge Susan Bolton of willfully and intentionally violating an order issued to him in 2011 by a different federal judge, G. Murray Snow.

[snip]

Snow issued a preliminary injunction that ordered Arpaio to stop running so-called saturation patrols — police sweeps that essentially stopped people who looked Latino and detained those who were deemed undocumented. The basic idea was that the profiling, warrantless stops and detention were unconstitutional.

Yet despite the federal court’s order, Arpaio kept running the unlawful patrols for at least 18 months, and publicly acknowledged as much.

Arpaio willfully defied a lawful order issued by a federal officer of the court.

An Arpaio pardon would express presidential contempt for the Constitution. Arpaio didn’t just violate a law passed by Congress. His actions defied the Constitution itself, the bedrock of the entire system of government. For Trump to say that this violation is excusable would threaten the very structure on which [h]is right to pardon is based.

Not that that matters to Trump. Pardon is one more neat tool he gets because he’s President, that’s the way he looks at it, I’m sure.

If you want to know more about the slimy jerk Trump just pardoned, read this Twitter thread from The Phoenix New Times, which has been covering Arpaio for over 30 years. It may turn your stomach. It obviously didn’t worry Trump. To him Arpaio is another political weapon he can use to prove to his white supremacist base that he’s on their side.

God, he’s disgusting.