Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer “directed his attorney” to explore a potential presidential pardon last year, his current legal representative has said.
By Amir Shah, Associated Press
March 7 2019 5:23 PM
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer “directed his attorney” to explore a potential presidential pardon last year, his current legal representative has said.
Michael Cohen testified under oath last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Mr Trump.
But on Thursday, his lawyer Lanny Davis said Cohen had in fact “directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump”.
The conversation happened in the months after the FBI in early April raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room, while his lawyers were involved in an agreement to share information with Mr Trump’s legal team.
At the time, Cohen was “open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media”, Mr Davis said in a statement.
Mr Davis’s comment raises questions about whether Cohen, who is expected to begin a three-year prison sentence in May, lied to Congress last week.
But it also highlights how the issue of pardons has emerged as a significant line of inquiry for congressional investigators.
There is nothing inherently improper about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a pardon from a president given the president’s wide latitude in granting them.
But investigators want to know if the prospect of presidential pardons were somehow offered or used inappropriately.
Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations since turning on his former boss and co-operating with special counsel Robert Mueller.
