Report: Trump attorney discussed pardons for Flynn and Manafort

WASHINGTON — One of President Donald Trump’s attorneys floated the possibility of pardoning two of the president’s former advisers caught up in the Russia probe in discussions with their lawyers last year, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper, citing three anonymous people with knowledge of the discussions, said then-Trump attorney John Dowd raised the idea with attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Dowd, who recently resigned from Trump’s legal team, denied having the conversations in an interview with the Times, saying, “There were no discussions. Period.” He did not respond to request for comment from The Associated Press.

According to the Times, the discussion with Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, took place last summer, months before Flynn took a plea deal and began cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. The conversation with Reginald Brown, who represented Manafort at the time, took place ahead of Manafort’s indictment last October on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and conspiring to launder money.

Reached Wednesday, Brown and Kelner declined to comment. The report provoked strong denials from the White House and Trump’s attorneys.

In a statement, attorney Ty Cobb, who represents the White House, said there have been no pardons discussed related to the Russia investigation.