Trump advisers dangled presidential pardons, says Cohen lawyer
US President Donald Trump’s advisers dangled the possibility of a pardon for his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, last year, Cohen’s attorney said yesterday, as congressional investigators zero in on the President’s pardon power.
The issue of pardons has emerged as a key line of inquiry as Democrats launch a series of sweeping investigations into Trump’s political and personal dealings.
Lanny Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, said in a written statement yesterday that his client was “open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media” in the months after the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April last year.
Davis, who was not Cohen’s lawyer at the time, said Cohen “directed his attorney” to explore a possible pardon with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on Trump’s legal team. The statement appears to contradict Cohen’s sworn testimony last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Trump. Davis’ comment raises questions about whether Cohen — who is slated to begin a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes including lying to Congress — lied to Congress again last week.
Cohen’s legal team argued his statement was correct as Cohen never asked Trump himself for a pardon.
“This is more proof that Cohen is a liar,” Giuliani said in an interview yesterday. “The guy says he never asked Trump for a pardon. He’s hiding behind having his lawyers do it.” 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 prospects of presidential pardons were somehow offered or used inappropriately.
It is hard to untangle the conflicting narratives given the unreliability of some of the central characters. Cohen, for instance, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and saw his credibility attacked last week by Republican lawmakers. Davis has had to walk back at least one bombshell assertion over the last year — that his client could tell investigators that Trump had advance knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — and Giuliani has fumbled facts and repeatedly moved the goalposts about what sort of behaviour by the President would constitute collusion or a crime.
Congressional investigators, meanwhile, appear to be focusing on presidential powers as a significant line of questioning in their probes.
The House Judiciary Committee, which is conducting a probe into possible obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power, sent letters to the FBI, the Justice Department and others for documents related to possible pardons for Cohen, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. All three have been charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible co-ordination between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.
Congressional investigators are also looking into whether anyone on Trump’s legal team tried quietly to reach out to Cohen last year before he turned on the President and as his legal problems mounted.
Cohen, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit claiming the Trump Organisation broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least US$1.9 million ($2.8m) to cover the cost of his defence. The lawsuit, filed yesterday in New York state court, claims the Trump Organisation stopped paying Cohen’s mounting legal fees after he began co-operating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Trump’s business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life. It alleges breach of contract and seeks damages on Cohen’s behalf.