PHOENIX (AP) — The sheriff for metro Phoenix repeatedly shifted blame to his subordinates Thursday as he was subjected to questioning in federal court over his agency’s defiance of a court order and the immigration patrols that elevated him to the national political stage.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio spent a half hour on the witness stand late Wednesday during the contempt-of-court hearing and resumed his testimony on Thursday. A judge is deciding whether to hold him in contempt for flouting court orders with his immigration patrols.

Lawyers played clips from the 83-year-old sheriff’s national media interviews in which he described his immigration policies and defiance of the federal government. In one interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Arpaio declared “That is garbage” to describe what he thought of a federal monitor appointed to keep an eye on his office.

His demeanor during testimony was subdued, a contrast from the video clips played in court in which he loudly expressed his defiance to court supervision of his office.

Hispanic drivers sued Arpaio over his immigration patrols that deputies began carrying out a decade ago, contending they were being racially profiled. After a 2012 trial, Judge Murray Snow found that Arpaio’s office systematically racially profiled Latinos. As the legal dispute played out, Arpaio was ordered to stop the patrols, but he acknowledged defying the order for 18 months.

The sheriff was asked to explain Thursday why an internal investigation found no wrongdoing over his office’s violation of the order. He explained he delegated those duties to others to handle and he didn’t have all the facts.

“I said as the leader I take responsibility but not the nuts and bolts,” Arpaio said, noting that he didn’t get into the details of the investigation.

Arpaio was asked Wednesday about whether his immigration efforts were politically driven. “It wasn’t politics for me. I was trying to enforce the laws,” he said.

The six-term sheriff also is being called into court for his office’s failure to turn over traffic-stop recordings before the profiling trial and bungling a plan to gather the videos once they were publicly revealed.

He could face civil fines and possibly a criminal contempt case.

Other subjects being examined at the hearings include allegations that Arpaio launched a secret investigation of the profiling case’s judge in a failed bid to get him disqualified and that his officers pocketed personal items seized from people during traffic stops and busts.

He is expected to face tough questions on his investigation involving U.S. District Judge Murray Snow.

The judge has said the investigation was intended to show an alleged conspiracy between him and the U.S. Justice Department, which was pressing a separate civil rights lawsuit against Arpaio.