A federal appeals court will appoint a special prosecutor to defend the ruling of a district judge in Phoenix who refused to vacate the record of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio after President Donald Trump pardoned him last year.

A group of amici represented by counsel including Perkins Coie asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to appoint a special prosecutor to advocate against Arpaio after lawyers at the Justice Department stated on appeal that the trial judge below should have erased Arpaio’s criminal contempt verdict and other rulings after the president pardoned him in August 2017.