Trump sought his lawyers’ advice on pardoning Manafort

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked his lawyers several weeks ago for their advice on the possibility of pardoning his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his lawyer said Thursday.

The subject of pardoning Manafort came up while he was on trial for multiple counts of bank fraud and tax evasion and the president was expressing his anger at how federal prosecutors had “beat up” and mistreated Manafort, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said in an interview.

Trump’s lawyers counseled the president against the idea, saying Trump should at least wait until special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Giuliani said the president agreed and did not push the issue further.

“He said yes,” Giuliani said. “He agreed with us.”

Giuliani said Trump was simply seeking advice as he complained about Manafort’s criminal exposure on charges unrelated to his work on Trump’s campaign. Giuliani said he and fellow Trump attorney Jay Sekulow advised waiting to see whether Mueller delivers a damning report that accuses the president of trying to block a federal probe of his campaign’s contacts with Russians.

Mueller’s findings are supposed to be provided in a report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who would then decide whether any evidence of wrongdoing was serious enough that it should be presented to Congress to consider for impeachment proceedings.

“We told him he should wait until all the investigations are over,” Giuliani said of their discussion. “This [special counsel] case is a strange case. It won’t be decided by a jury. It will decided by the Justice Department and Congress and ultimately the American people. You have to be sensitive to public optics.”

Trump has repeatedly decried the government’s treatment of Manafort — who a jury found guilty Tuesday on tax- and bankfraud charges. On Wednesday, the president told reporters that Manafort was a “good man” and that he felt sorry for him.

Giuliani said it was that sentiment that started the conversation.

“He feels Manafort has been mistreated. Nobody in a case like this get’s raided in the middle of the night, put in solitary confinement,” Giuliani said. “They tried to crack him and it didn’t work. Over the last two to three weeks, he’s expressed anger and frustration about how he’s been treated.”