Possible Trump self-pardon report denied

Such action over Russia probe ‘not on table’

NEW YORK • The White House was forced to deny reports Friday that President Donald Trump was investigating ways of pardoning himself and his family in the event of being impeached over the Russian hacking scandal.

The Washington Post quoted sources inside the Trump team as saying the president was seeking information on how to clear his name.

No president has ever sought to pardon himself before and so the legality of any such move remains unclear.

But the paper reported that one person inside Trump’s legal team said the president had asked advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian hacking of the election.

“The president’s lawyers are co-operating with special counsel Robert Mueller on behalf of the president,” he said.

The New York Times reported a White House team was working to discredit Mueller’s work, describing him as conflicted and partisan. Mueller’s investigation has expanded to examine a broad range of transactions involving the president’s businesses, including dealings by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a person familiar with the probe told Bloomberg News. Trump told the Times that if Mueller examined his family’s finances beyond any relationship with Russia he’d consider it “a violation.”

The president himself has insisted that he is not considering getting rid of Mueller, a former FBI director.

But he did say this week that Mueller should not broaden the investigation into Russian influence to look at his own family’s finances.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked on Thursday if Trump would try to remove Mueller, said that “the president has no intention to do so at this time.” At the same time, she said she couldn’t predict what kinds of “outrageous” things Mueller may do in the future that might prompt his firing.

Senior White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway said Friday that it was important for the American people to know about donations made to Democrats by some of the lawyers Mueller has hired. “This is just a witch hunt,” Conway said Friday on Fox News’s Fox & Friends program. “It’s all a hoax.”

Conway said that whether or not the lawyers would be prejudiced against Trump in their investigation “remains to be seen.”

“It’s relevant that people at least know what the motivations are,” she said.

The report came at the same time as a shift in Trump’s legal team. His longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, was reported to be “out” — stepping down from his frontline role to play a more behind-the-scenes role.