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Another breaking news story from Friday night involved President Trump¹'s pardon of a man who used to be a sheriff in the state of Arizona.

周五晚上的另一则爆炸性新闻——特朗普总统宣布赦免亚利桑那州前警长。

His name is Joe Arpaio. He served for 24 years as the sheriff of Maricopa County. Arpaio had called himself America's toughest sheriff and he became widely known for his tough stance on crime, for a controversial outdoor jail he established and for cracking down on illegal immigration.

这位前警长名叫乔·阿尔帕约。他在马里科帕县担任了24年警长。阿尔帕约称自己是美国最强硬的警长，他因在犯罪问题上的强硬立场、建立一个备受争议的露天监狱以及打击非法移民而广为人知。

But Arpaio was accused of racially discriminating² against Latinos, and in 2011, a judge ruled that Arpaio's office was unfairly stopping Latino drivers more often than non-Latino drivers, and that it was doing that on the suspicion that the Latinos were in the country illegally. The court ordered Sheriff Arpaio to stop the practice, but he said he'd done nothing wrong and would continue his work.

阿尔帕约被控对拉美裔人进行种族歧视，2011年，一名法官裁定阿尔帕约所在警局不公平地拦截拉美裔司机，相比非拉美裔司机，他们被拦截的次数要多。而警局这样做是因为怀疑他们为非法移民。该法院要求阿尔帕约警长停止这种做法，但是他表示自己没做错任何事，而且会继续他的工作。

Late last month, a federal judge found Arpaio guilty of refusing to obey a court order. He was scheduled to be sentenced in early October, possibly to up to six months of jail time. But President Trump's pardon, also known as executive clemency³ means the 85-year-old former sheriff will be forgiven of the crime and receive no punishment.

上月末，一名联邦法官裁定，阿尔帕约拒绝服从法院命令罪名成立。本来，他将于10月初被判刑，刑期可能高达6个月。但是特朗普总统的特赦令，也被称为“行政赦免”，将使现年85岁的前警长阿尔帕约被赦免罪行而且免于受处罚。

Why was he pardoned? The White House says that throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio protected the public from crime and illegal immigration and that after 50 years of admirable service, he's a worthy⁴ candidate for a pardon.

为什么他会被赦免?白宫表示，阿尔帕约在任职警长期间保护公众不受犯罪和非法移民的侵害，而且他为公众服务50多年，令人钦佩，是值得被总统特赦的人选。

Arpaio, a Republican who's strongly supported President Trump's candidacy for office, said his conviction was a, quote, political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama Justice Department. Prosecution⁵ of Arpaio's case begun when Democratic President Barack Obama was in office.

阿尔帕约是一名共和党人，曾大力支持特朗普竞选，并称自己的罪名是“奥巴马政府司法部余党所做的政治迫害”。阿尔帕约案始于民主党总统巴拉克·奥巴马执政时期。

Critics of the pardon called it unacceptable and said no one is above the law. And some spoke⁶ out against the timing⁷ of it as the pardon was announced while Hurricane Harvey was closing in on Texas and the focus of news coverage⁸ at that time.

批评人士称特朗普此举令人无法接受，并表示没有人能凌驾于法律之上。有些人站出来反对这一特赦公布的时间。因为正当飓风“哈维”逼近德克萨斯州，占据当时新闻报道焦点的时刻，特朗普总统宣布了这一特赦。

This is the first pardon by President Trump and American leaders are given the power to make pardons by Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

这是特朗普总统首次行使特赦权。依据美国宪法第二条第二款，美国领导人有特赦权。