Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz criticized the media’s reaction to President Donald Trump’s recent pardons and accused them of blowing the story out of proportion.
“It’s the most ridiculous thing to constantly say the president is saying is he’s above the law,” Dershowitz said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “The president’s spokesmen have said over and over again, ‘No one is above the law.’ What he’s saying is, the law gives me certain authority.”
“What President Trump’s people are saying is, we think the law authorizes the president to pardon, to fire, and that’s not above the law,” Dershowitz continued. “That’s within the law. So let’s cut this cliché of above the law.”
Dershowitz claimed Trump acted in a similar manner to former President Barack Obama and supports the idea of the president being the final authority on justice.
“Every pardon [Trump] has given with one exception I think, Arpaio—I disagree with, all the others are good. I wish he’d give more pardons,” Dershowitz said.
“President Obama did it to people who had got excessive drug sentences. This president is looking more generally. I like the idea of a president serving as ultimately the last authority on justice. The president, this president, has a real gut for justice. I know, I have discussed pardons with him,” he concluded.
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