Republicans Rally Against Joe Arpaio Pardon; Paul Ryan Joins Chorus

House Speaker Paul Ryan became the latest top Republican leader to disagree with President Donald Trump's decision Friday to pardon Joe Arpaio.

"The Speaker does not agree with this decision," Ryan’s spokesman Doug Andres said in a statement Saturday. "Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon."

Other prominent Republicans such as Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush condemned the move as did several Democrats and human rights campaigners.

Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt of court in July for ignoring court orders to stop his aggressive enforcement of immigration laws and was facing up to six months in jail.

However, in a controversial move, Trump pardoned the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Friday night and announced the decision in a Twitter posting.

“I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85-year-old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!” wrote the president.

In a statement, the White House said: "Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon."

McCain reacted strongly to the pardon Friday, saying it undermined the president’s claim for the respect of rule of law.

“No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold," he said in a statement.

"The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."

Arpaio's lawyer, Jack Wilenchik, however, told CNN that Ryan was wrong about the pardon, and his conviction was a result of “politics trying to mix with the courts.”

“But at the end of the day here, the President did the right thing, because there should have been a jury in this case. We should have had one from day one, and at this point the appeal — in fact the sheriff is an old man, can't forget that, he's 85 years old. And this would be a lot more money and wasted time all around. So I would have rather seen this go to jury in the first place, and get the right verdict. But at this point, we're dealing with a wrongful verdict," Wilenchik said.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post report Saturday said Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions about dropping a criminal case against controversial ex-sheriff Arpaio.

According to the report, Trump was told that closing the case against Arpaio would be inappropriate.