White House says 'no discussion' of Trump pardoning Manafort or Gates

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that there is “no discussion or consideration” of presidential pardons for former aides Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that John Dowd, until recently a top member of the president’s legal team, raised in talks with attorneys for Manafort and Flynn the notion that Trump might offer them a pardon. Such talks, which reportedly took place before Manafort and Flynn were charged by Mueller’s team, could be construed as an attempt to influence whether Manafort and Flynn would cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.


The Times reporting, which POLITICO has not confirmed, relies on three unnamed sources. Dowd is quoted in the Times article denying that he ever discussed pardons with lawyers for Flynn or Manafort. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling Mueller’s Russia probe, told the Times he has “only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House.”

Another lawyer for the president, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that during his time representing Trump he had never "had any discussions of pardons of any individual involved in this inquiry." Flynn's attorney Robert Kelner declined to comment.

Asked multiple times about the prospect of pardons for Flynn or Manafort at her Wednesday press briefing, Sanders repeatedly referred reporters to the statement from Cobb and said “there would be no reason for me to have had a conversation with the president about that because that is currently not being discussed at the White House.”

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While both Flynn and Manafort have been charged with crimes as a result of the Mueller investigation, the two former Trump advisers have adopted differing legal strategies. Flynn, charged in November with lying to the FBI about his interactions with Russian officials, has agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team, while Manafort, indicted last October on charges of money laundering, fraud and other crimes related to his work as a political consultant for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, has maintained his innocence.

“The president has the authority to pardon individuals, but you're asking me about a specific case in which it hasn't been discussed so I would not have brought that up with him,” Sanders said Wednesday.

Trump previously exercised his pardon power on behalf of a political ally, Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who had been convicted of criminal contempt. The pardon raised flags among Democrats, who worry that Trump might make similar moves to absolve Manafort, Flynn or other Russia probe witnesses prior to the end of the investigation.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.