Unreal. The radical Obama Justice Department sued Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona today.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit Thursday against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County, accusing him and his agency of stonewalling a probe into policing practices that some call discriminatory against Hispanics.
The suit is the latest move in months of legal sniping between the two sides. They are also fighting over whether federal prosecutors improperly contacted employees of the sheriff’s office directly to seek testimony, instead of going through lawyers.
Robert Driscoll, a lawyer representing Mr. Arpaio and the Maricopa Sheriff’s Office, didn’t have an immediate response to the suit.
Mr. Arpaio is the elected sheriff for Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. He has become a vocal critic of illegal immigration and has carried out operations aimed at detaining immigrants and turning them over to federal law enforcement for deportation.
Civil-rights groups have long called Mr. Arpaio’s policies discriminatory. Soon after Attorney General Eric Holder took office last year, the Justice Department said it was investigating those complaints and looking into possible violations of Hispanics’ civil rights.
The Justice Department suit, filed in federal court in Phoenix, said the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office receives millions of dollars in federal funding and is required to cooperate with federal investigations as a condition of receiving those funds.
This should surprise no one. After all, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was trying to uphold the law in Arizona.