“It’s clearly within the power of the president to execute pardons without the pardon attorney,” Sessions said at a Senate subcommittee hearing, The Associated Press reported.

The comment was in reference to Trump’s pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former Bush administration official I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby…

Sessions specifically defended Trump’s decisions to pardon Arpaio and Libby, noting that Arpaio — a former Arizona sheriff found guilty of contempt of court — had been charged with a misdemeanor and is 85, and that Libby — former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff who was found guilty of leaking the identity of a covert CIA official — had “contributed greatly to America.”