President Donald Trump on Monday defended his pardon of Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, who as sheriff of Maricopa County defied a court order to stop his hardline immigration policing and earned a citation for contempt of court last month. Trump’s comments came at a joint press conference with the president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö.

“He’s done a great job for the people of Arizona,” Trump told reporters. “I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly… They just hammered him just before the election; I thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do. ”