President Trump: A Manafort pardon is 'not off the table'
President Donald Trump has signaled he could eventually issue a pardon to his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who prosecutors say breached a plea deal in their probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Based on an exclusive interview with Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the New York Post reported the president has never discussed a pardon for Manafort, but it’s “not off the table.”
“It was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?” Trump told the Post reporters.
His sentiments come as experts, critics and lawmakers speculate whether Manafort has decided not to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller III’s Russia investigation because a presidential pardon awaits. Manafort, 69, is in jail.
Mueller has accused Manafort of lying to federal prosecutors in violation of a plea deal he made in September. As part of the agreement, Manafort was expected to cooperate in exchange for a shorter prison sentence and fewer criminal charges.
Attorneys for Manafort have denied that he lied to prosecutors.
Trump’s interview with the Post comes a day after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was unaware of any discussions about a presidential pardon.
“I’m not aware of any conversations for anyone’s pardon involving this process at all,” Sanders said when asked at a Tuesday press briefing whether Trump planned to pardon Manafort.
Previously, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani also has suggested Manafort and other indicted associates could be eligible for presidential pardons at the end of the probe.
Trump has stepped up his attacks on Mueller in the last three days. He has called the investigation a “witch hunt” and compared it to McCarthyism.
The president tweeted on Wednesday morning: “While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!”
Outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), a Trump critic, on Wednesday said the president has tweeted “all kinds of falsehoods about this investigation.”
Flake’s comments followed an unsuccessful, bipartisan attempt Wednesday to pass a Senate bill that would preserve the Mueller investigation.
“I just can’t for the life of me understand why more of us here in the Senate aren’t concerned about this investigation,” Flake said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
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