President Trump issued his first prison commutation after lunch with Alan Dershowitz. The men talked about Mideast politics before Trump “asked me what else was on my mind, and I told him. I took advantage of the moment,” the longtime Harvard law professor recalled.

Dershowitz told the president about Sholom Rubashkin, a kosher meatpacking executive who was seven years into a 27-year prison sentence for financial crimes. Not long after, Rubashkin in December became the first — and so far only — person Trump released from prison.