ANALYSIS | The White House on Wednesday did not categorically deny President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer discussed pardons for two former aides with their lawyers just as the special counsel was closing in on both.

At issue are conversations John Dowd, who left Trump’s outside legal team last week, allegedly had with the attorneys for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. The New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon that those conversations occurred, but the three sources it cites did not say that the president greenlighted those alleged conversations or was told about them after they might have occurred.

The reported conversations suggest Dowd, and possibly others including Trump himself, were concerned the former national security adviser and Trump campaign chairman might cut a deal with Robert Mueller, the Justice Department’s special counsel investigating Russia’s 2016 election meddling, and give him information damaging to the president.

Watch: Ryan Talks Mueller Investigation, Tariffs