Arpaio had been given until Aug. 17 to hand over documents the federal government first asked for 15 months ago.
Arpaio called the Justice Department actions harassment at a news conference yesterday in downtown Phoenix. His office has said it won’t hand over additional documents because federal authorities haven’t said exactly what they are investigating.
“They have hundreds of thousands of reports, hundreds of thousands,’’ Arpaio said. “They’re so broad, we’re trying to narrow it down. We’re trying to work with them.’’ He said he thinks the lawsuit is a ruse.
Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, a Republican, called the Justice Department’s actions a witch hunt.
“This is the game that’s played,’’ he said. “They couldn’t find any violations. . . . That’s why it’s broad, that’s why they’re very vague about what they want. It doesn’t take a very high IQ to figure out what’s going on with these folks.’’
The lawsuit is the latest action against Arizona by the federal government, which earlier sued the state to stop its strict new immigration law that requires police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally.
