Tucker Carlson Says Alan Dershowitz Got Rich in 'Sleazy' Donald Trump Pardons

Tucker Carlson said he has stopped passing pardon requests to President Donald Trump this term because the process looks "transparently sleazy." He named Alan Dershowitz and Brett Tolman as people running what he called a "sideline business getting pardons and getting rich doing it."

The remarks came on a mid-October episode of The Tucker Carlson Show. Carlson was interviewing Jonathan Gross, a former senior counsel to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dillon who resigned from the Justice Department in March 2026. Carlson is one of Trump's best-known media allies, which makes this a criticism of his own side's White House.

"I didn't in this term because I felt it was getting so transparently sleazy that anybody connected to the pardon thing is gonna be in trouble at some point," Carlson said. "Just, ooh, my spidey senses went off. It feels very corrupt the way this is working."

Tucker Carlson Describes a Pardon 'Economy'

Carlson said that because no systematic review exists, the process is "totally haphazard and it relies on getting the president's attention and convincing him to pardon."

"And that has allowed an entire economy to grow up where lawyers approach desperate families and say for this amount of money, $250,000, half a million dollars, a million dollars, I will get you a pardon," he said. He did not say where those figures came from. They are secondhand and anecdotal.

He then named names. "And that has allowed people like Alan Dershowitz and a bunch of others, Brett Tolman, to start this sideline business getting pardons and getting rich doing it. And I feel like that's not a justice system."

Carlson did not accuse either man of breaking the law or of any specific wrongdoing. CBS News has profiled Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah who lobbies for clemency. Dershowitz is a lawyer who has sought Trump pardons for clients.

What the Record Shows on Pardon Brokers

Carlson's description matches reporting from the past year. A CBS News investigation published September 13 found brokers charging up to $3 million. The lobbying firm JM Burkman and Associates disclosed $960,000 from Joseph Schwartz, a nursing home operator Trump pardoned. The same CBS analysis of Justice Department data found that about 70 percent of Trump's second-term clemency actions did not go through the department, and 92 percent did not once the January 6 cases are counted.

Tolman spoke openly to CBS about how he works. "I just send my petitions directly to the White House," he said, and he called the Justice Department "the fox watching the hen house." He said he expected to take on "40 or 50" clemency cases and to succeed in more than two-thirds of them.

In May 2025, NBC News reported that pardons had become a growing business for lobbyists. Firms were registering under federal lobbying disclosure law to work on "pardon" issues. NBC's article noted a New York Times report that Tolman received five-figure sums for clemency work during Trump's first term.

Dershowitz has long defended his own clemency work. He helped at least 12 people win clemency in Trump's first term, and he told The Boston Globe in February 2021 that more than half of that work was pro bono. When he was paid, he said, he charged an hourly rate in line with senior law firm partners. In March, he told NBC News he planned to seek pardons for two leaders of the wellness company OneTaste, calling their case "a miscarriage of justice."

Jonathan Gross Alleges Seven-Figure Success Fees

Gross went further than Carlson. He said people he knows, though not his own clients, were told by lawyers that they had Attorney General Todd Blanche on speed dial. He said the allegation has been "in the New York Times" and that he knows people who paid. Carlson described similar fee levels earlier in the conversation.

He added a caveat of his own: "yes, you can pay for access, but you can't necessarily pay for results."

Gross also said Dillon told him in a meeting that the department's job was to protect itself. Carlson, who said Dillon had been his family's lawyer for decades, summed up that account this way: "And if you want justice, you have to pay effectively a bribe." Dillon's side of the exchange has not been made public.

What Happens Next

Gross's proposed fix was more pardons, not fewer.

Carlson did not say whether he expects anyone to face consequences. He said only that "anybody connected to the pardon thing is gonna be in trouble at some point."