Conrad Black reportedly asked Alan Dershowitz for help in getting President Donald Trump's attention to the former international media mogul's 2007 conviction on fraud and obstruction of justice.
According to The Washington Post, Dershowitz's letter to Trump played a major role in Trump's pardon of Black, who wrote a 2018 book titled "Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other."
"Some people are representing that it was a 'back-scratching' job — that I write nice things about the president, and he gives me a pardon," Black told the Post.
"But [Trump] said he always thought it was a bad rap, and the White House legal confirmed that and said it was."
The White House said singer Elton John, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger also advocated Black's behalf.
According to the Post, Dershowitz, who said he did not know Black well, talked about the case with Kissinger before using his influence with the Trump administration.
Since 2017, the longtime Democrat has become an informal adviser to the president.
"Pardons are designed for cases like this — to ameliorate harsh sentences. Sentences today are too harsh," Dershowitz said, the Post reported "A pardon is an apt mechanism to reduce injustice."
Black, who owned a media empire that included Canada's National Post, Britain’s Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post, served more than three years and was deported to his native Canada after he was released in 2012.
Dershowitz said he sent a letter to the White House a few months ago by email and did not hear back. Black told the Post the White House legal team reviewed the letter and agreed "it was an unjust verdict."
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