Page 8 - Pardoning Manafort News Today

Will tell you i think its grounds for an obstruction count, because all of his tweets, all of his statements to don mcgahn that he wants him to fire him, all of his statements to fox news and certainly what we received from the "washington post" tonight. all of that is evidence of a possible obstruction count. its not that different from, lets say, pardoning manafort is evidence of an obstruction count. >> according to the "washington post," his attorneys rudy giuliani and jay sekulow advised hi...

Earlier today, we also found out that trump may be willing to take drastic steps to pardon paul manafort. trump is continuing to raise the possibility of a pardon and has been, quote, clashing with this man, white house counsel don mcgahn who is strongly against pardoning manafort. trump is considering bringing in a new lawyer to draft a manafort pardon if mcgahn wont do it. he really at this point doesnt care, a former official said. he would rather fight the battle. he doesnt want to do anythi...

Charges that didnt stick? >> well, the one thing you can say for certain is that manafort is going to go on trial again in just a couple of weeks, september 17th hell go on trial in the district of columbia on very similar charges to the ones in virginia. theyre charged in a different way and the conduct is different than theyre charging. theyre saying he failed to register as a foreign lobbyist during all the time he was doing that work for ukraine. he should have, the government says, because ...

Example, stephen miller was pushing for a pardon for arpaio or in other instances a lot of trumps allies pushing for the scooter libby pardon such as joe digenova and almost joined his legal team, of course. one consideration. another, that the stakes are higher if the president were to pardon manafort for himself. legally. manafort, of course, is directly implicated in the investigation into trumps own campaign. he has exposure there. of course, the final thing is that pardoning manafort may be...

Should have been. >> reporter: and then theres paul manafort. >> i have great respect for what he has done in terms of what he has gone through. >> reporter: winning praise from the president for not cooperating with prosecutors. >> it is called flipping and it ought to be illegal. >> reporter: the feds often make their case with star witnesses that turn on their bosses. the presidents lawyer tells "the washington post", trump tower asked about the possibility of pardoning manafort several weeks...

Presumably with mueller and will not step on his investigation. but this is an outgrowth. the fact theyre following up on the tax counts as well with michael cohen is a factor also. and, in fact, in virginia, they can file open tax counts on manafort. he talks about pardoning manafort but there could be state counts as well. >> yes, the breadth of this is really extraordinary. i want to bring in jeff horowitz, a reporter for the associated press, and you broke this incredible story about david p...

Reach eight guilty verdicts. >> when the president was asked about a pardon for manafort, he side-stepped the question. >> i have great respect for what he has done and gone through. he worked for ronald reagan for years. he worked for bob dole. his firm worked for mccain. many, many people and many, many years.gainst him, every consultant and lobbyist in washington does. >> that means they will be busy at the irs, i guess. "the new york times" reports the president and rudy giuliani have discus...

Perspective, there really doesnt seem to be a case against it. if there were evidence that, for instance, republicans in his own party would really put up a fight about this and say this dle clearly shows obstruction of justice, which is what a lot of democrats are arguing, then maybe there would be a risk. he seems to use these pardons as almost political tools, to shore up support on his side of his base. i think a manafort pardon would do that. i dont really think he would suffer from a lot o...

What he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant and lobbyist in washington does. >> the new york times" reports the president and rudy giuliani have discussed the potential political repercussions of pardoning manafort. giuliani says the president is not considering it. john bolton is meeting with his russian counterpart this morning in geneva. we have cnns fred pleitgen in moscow with the latest. fred, good morning. we assume election interference at the top of the s...

Ed poorly and his lawyer, rudy giuliani, has admitted hes discussed the possibility of pardoning manafort with the president. >> mr. giuliani is also saying he doesnt this it will happen. we reported at "the times" some months ago that the presidents lawyers had talked to the lawyers for mr. manafort about the possibility of a pardon, you know, i think, i think they recognize, at least the people around the president recognize that that would be a line that perhaps even staunch republican suppor...