Justice Department: Trump pardon merits nullifying rulings in Arpaio case [View all]

[DonViejo]

By JOSH GERSTEIN 09/21/2017 02:41 PM EDT

Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is entitled to have the guilty verdict and all rulings in his criminal contempt of court case formally nullified by the court as a result of the pardon President Donald Trump issued last month, the Justice Department said in a court filing Thursday.

Responding to a request from U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, federal prosecutors acknowledged that there is no legal precedent that squarely answers the question of what should happen when someone receives a pardon after a verdict is reached (in this case by a judge) but before the conviction is officially entered.

In July, Bolton found Arpaio guilty of contempt for defying a court order requiring his deputies to stop racial profiling of Latinos. Trump pardoned the former sheriff in August, citing his long history of public service.

Citing the pardon, Arpaio's attorneys are asking that the convictions and all orders and opinions entered in the case be vacated—in essence, canceled. "There is no case law directly addressing whether vacatur is appropriate under the circumstances at issue here—when a presidential pardon moots a criminal prosecution after a finding of guilt but before a judgment of conviction is entered," prosecutors wrote in their five-page submission.

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/09/21/joe-arpaio-trump-pardon-ruling-nullifying-242981