Richard Mack, a former Arizona county sheriff and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, is making the rounds of right-wing podcasts demanding that President Donald Trump pardon a sheriff who was convicted in December on federal charges of conspiracy, fraud, and bribery.
Mack recently appeared on the show hosted by intensely antisemitic far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters as part of his campaign to win a pardon for Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, who was convicted by a jury and sentenced last month to 10 years in prison. Peters introduced Mack as “a longtime friend of the Stew Peters show.”
Mack portrays Jenkins as the victim of political persecution. Here’s how the Justice Department described the evidence against Jenkins:
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jenkins accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions…
In return for the bribes, Jenkins appointed each of the bribe payors as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position, and issued them official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and credentials. The bribe payors were not trained or vetted and did not render any legitimate services to the Sheriff’s Office or the citizens of Culpeper County.
Some of the money Jenkins received was reportedly in the form of $15,000 cash in a bag. More details from NBC channel 4 in Washington, D.C.:
Each of the bribe payors was sworn in as an auxiliary deputy and given a badge allowing them enhanced gun rights and, as some testified, the hope they could get out of speeding tickets. Others used the badges in attempts to get a COVID test, drive in highway emergency lanes or get around a TSA line.
Jenkins’ lawyer suggested that the scheme was a “creative” effort by the sheriff to get around Virginia legal limits on gun ownership. Mack, who made a name for himself as a plaintiff in a successful challenge to part of the Clinton-era Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, praised Jenkins’ opposition to gun regulation:
…this guy, this Sheriff Jenkins, was the first sheriff in the country to respond to Joe Biden and say, there will be no gun confiscation, not on AR-15s or AK-47s—nothing. Nothing will be confiscated in my county by your federal government. Don't allow them to come in here. If they do start to come in here, I will deputize every single person in my county, and they will be required to keep their guns and be armed with high-powered rifles. Don't try it.
On Peters’ show and a recent appearance on Michael Jaco’s podcast, Mack complained that he, former Trump aide Michael Flynn, and MAGA rocker Ted Nugent had all tried to get Trump’s attention to promote a pardon for Jenkins, but that they had run into “blockers” in the White House. Flynn has also raised money for Jenkins' defense. On Jaco's show, Mack compared Jenkins’ badge-selling to the badges Mack offers in return for membership in CSPOA’s posse for a $760 fee. Mack and Jaco also commiserated about federal judges who have ruled against Trump actions and about what Mack called “some real evil RINO Republicans” in Congress.
Before introducing Mack, Peters delivered a rant denouncing immigrants as “parasitic criminals” and “savages.” He slammed the Trump administration for not delivering sufficiently on its promise of mass deportations. “Sheriffs have the power to enforce federal immigration laws in their jurisdiction,” Peters said, “and they also have the power to arrest treasonous government officials who allow this country to be invaded.”
Mack didn’t disagree with anything Peters said, though Mack said he was “really thrilled” that Trump was elected, and that the president has made a “good start” in securing the border in his first 90 days. He said there's "no way" that mass deportation will be successful without sheriffs' participation.
Mack and the CSPOA train law enforcement officers in Mack’s views about the Constitution and his belief that sheriffs are the “only legitimate law enforcement officers in this country,” as he told Peters. Mack partners with far-right figures like neo-Confederate Michael Peroutka and participated in the ReAwaken America tour, which brought together conspiracy theorists, MAGA insiders, and far-right activists. The often-unaccountable power of local sheriffs and the impact of Mack’s “constitutional sheriff” movement are explored in a recent book, “The Highest Law in the Land: How The Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy,” by journalist Jessica Pishko.
