President Donald Trump said he\u2019s never discussed \u2014 or considered \u2014 pardoning Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager who pleaded guilty and made a deal\u2026<\/b>
\nPresident Donald Trump said he\u2019s never discussed \u2014 or considered \u2014 pardoning Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager who pleaded guilty and made a deal with Russia investigation special counsel Robert Mueller. But the president also said this week that it\u2019s an idea he hasn\u2019t dismissed doing, either.
The comments from the president come in the same week that it was revealed that Manafort \u2014 whose plea deal is under re-consideration by the special counsel after it was discovered he\u2019d been lying to investigators \u2014 also had his lawyer briefing Trump\u2019s legal team on what Mueller\u2019s investigation had been asking him about, per previous reporting from the Inquisitr .
It was a revelation that Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, suggested was happening. \u201c[Mueller] wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,\u201d Giuliani said.
Some have suggested that Manafort went behind the backs of the special counsel\u2019s office in order to gain favor with Trump, to secure for himself a pardon from the president. Trump, on Wednesday, suggested that a pardon for Manafort wasn\u2019t on his mind \u2014 but that he reserved the right to issue one if he wanted to.
A pardon for Manafort \u201cwas never discussed, but I wouldn\u2019t take it off the table,\u201d Trump said, according to reporting from the New York Post . \u201cWhy would I take it off the table?\u201d
President Trump says that a Paul Manafort pardon is \u00ab\u00a0not off the table\u00a0\u00bb https:\/\/t.co\/DJXeGxbdEy pic.twitter.com\/lqYWT9EG2o
\u2014 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 28,2018
Within the same interview, Trump suggested that Mueller\u2019s team was purposely trying to get Manafort \u2014 and others involved in the investigation \u2014 to lie so that any answers Trump gave to the special counsel would be deemed as a lie also. \u201cIf you told the truth, you go to jail,\u201d he said.
Trump also compared the investigation to events that took place during the \u201cRed Scare\u201d of the late 1940s through the early 1950s.
\u201c[T]his is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era. This is no better than McCarthy. And that was a bad situation for the country. But this is where we are. And it\u2019s a terrible thing.\u201d
While the president\u2019s pardon power is one of the few Constitutional tools he has at his disposal that does not have a check from any other branch of government, some experts have suggested that his use of the pardon would be an impeachable offense.
\u201cWhile the pardon power is quite broad under the Constitution, that does not mean that exercises of the pardon power \u2014 or promises to grant pardons \u2014 cannot be obstructive,\u201d said Lisa Kern Griffin, a law professor at Duke University, per reporting from Vox back in March. \u201cLike any other lawful act, such as terminating executive branch employees, a pardon could be unlawful if done with the corrupt intent to impede an investigation or influence a witness.\u201d<\/p>\n