President Trump, Joe Arpaio And The Power Of The Pardon

Earlier this week, President Trump took a question about the timing of his pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Trump said, "In the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally. You know the hurricane was just starting. And I put it out that I had pardoned, as we say, Sheriff Joe.”

Hurricane or not, it was a deeply controversial pardon. We dissect the legal questions surrounding it.

Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge. WBUR legal analyst. Senior lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. She tweets @ngertner.