Trump was asked whether he is ‘considering a pardon’ for Cohen, who has come under scrutiny after the FBI raided his New York office, home and hotel

Donald Trump has dismissed a query about whether he is considering pardoning his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, as “a stupid question”.



Appearing in the Oval Office alongside the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday, Trump was asked by ABC News reporter Jon Karl: “Are you considering a pardon for Michael Cohen?”

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A longtime Trump subordinate, Cohen has come under increased scrutiny after the FBI raided his New York office, home and hotel room on 9 April. Trump called the raid “an attack on our country in a true sense”.

Among other issues, federal investigators are looking at Cohen’s role in facilitating a $130,000 payment to an actor in pornographic films, Stormy Daniels, in exchange for silence regarding an alleged sexual relationship with Trump.

Trump launched an attack against the New York Times on Twitter on Saturday, after the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Maggie Haberman wrote about the pressure Cohen was facing to testify against Trump, in order to avoid expensive legal fees and potential criminal charges.

Trump wrote: “The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Habberman [sic], known as a Crooked H[illary] flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip’.

“They use non-existent ‘sources’ and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected.

“Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”



Trump did not identify the “drunk/drugged up loser”. His tweet seemed to assume that Cohen was facing legal “trouble”.

Cohen also represented RNC fundraiser Elliott Broidy over a $1.6m payment to a former Playboy model to cover up a sexual relationship, and Fox News host Sean Hannity. The latter has insisted Cohen only advised him about his real estate holdings.

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Trump has used his pardoning power three times: for the Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted for defying a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latinos; for Kristian Saucier, a sailor convicted of taking photos in a restricted area of a submarine; and earlier this month for I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a top aide to former vice-president Dick Cheney, who was convicted of lying to a grand jury and to federal agents in an investigation over the leak of a CIA agent’s identity.

Any use of the power for someone connected to the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference and alleged links between Trump aides and Moscow – as Cohen is, the special counsel having provided the referral that led in part to the New York raids – would be immensely controversial.

On Saturday, Trump said in a tweet he was considering a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight world champion boxer who in the 1920s spent a year in jail on racially motivated charges. Trump said the actor Sylvester Stallone was lobbying him to do so.