Article snippet: You could call it "The Art of the Dump." In Washington, D.C., Friday afternoons are known as a time when public officials may take controversial actions for which they want to draw little notice. Last night, with the ferocious Hurricane Harvey heading toward the Texas coast, the public may have been paying even less attention to politics than usual for the end of a work week. Then it came -- a pair of controversial moves by the administration and the departure of a divisive figure in the White House, all over the span of three hours. First, at 6 p.m. ET, came the announcement that President Trump had sent a much-anticipated memo to transgender people from the armed services. Exactly two hours later came the second story. The White House sent a press release announcing Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio, the highly controversial former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who is reviled and admired for his harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants. The press release and a subsequent tweet by the president lauding Arpaio for “admirable service” made no mention of the fact that the pardon was for the sheriff's conviction on criminal contempt for violating a federal court order that he stop detaining people solely for immigration offenses. The pardon, Trump’s first as president, appears to distinguish him from other recent presidents who waited to issue their most controversial pardons or commutations until the end of their terms. The news on Friday night di... Link to the full article to read more