There is currently « no need » to pardon President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short said Monday.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, however, did not rule out the possibility that Trump could pardon Cohen.
« I don’t think that we are going to talk about hypotheticals that don’t exist right now, » Sanders told reporters at the White House Monday morning.
The raid has led to speculation that Cohen — a top Trump confidante — could cooperate with federal authorities. And Jay Goldberg, a longtime attorney for Trump, expressed concern to CNN’s Erin Burnett last week that Cohen will lie to prosecutors to get leniency on his own charges.
A US president can pre-emptively pardon individuals after they commit crimes but before they are charged. President Gerald Ford used this mechanism to pardon President Richard Nixon before he could face charges in the Watergate scandal.
The speculation that Trump could pardon Cohen comes in the wake of the President’s pardon of ex-Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby earlier this month and Trump’s weekend disclosure that he’s considering granting a posthumous one to boxer Jack Johnson on the advice of actor Sylvester Stallone.
