The Columbus Dispatch

Trump team pondering pardons

- By Carol D. Leonnig, Ashley Parker, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger

Some of President Donald Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigat­ion, building a case against what they allege are Mueller’s conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons, according to people familiar with the effort.

Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the

issue. But one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understand­ing the reach of his pardoning authority, as well as the limits of Mueller’s investigat­ion.

“This is not in the context of, ‘I can’t wait to pardon myself,’” a close adviser said.

With the Russia investigat­ion continuing to widen, Trump’s lawyers are working to corral the probe and question the propriety of the special counsel’s work. They are actively compiling a list of Mueller’s alleged potential conflicts of interest, which they say could serve as a way to stymie his work, according to several of Trump’s legal advisers.

A conflict of interest is one of the possible grounds that can be cited by an attorney general to remove a special counsel from office under Justice Department regulation­s that set rules for the job.

The president is also irritated by the notion that Mueller’s probe could reach into his and his family’s finances, advisers said.

Trump has been fuming about the probe in recent weeks as he has been informed about the legal questions that he and his family could face. His primary frustratio­n centers on why allegation­s that his campaign coordinate­d with Russia should spread into scrutinizi­ng many years of Trump dealmaking. He has told aides he was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns.

Breaking a tradition that began with President Jimmy Carter, Trump has repeatedly refused to make his tax returns public after first claiming he could not do so because he was under audit or after promising to release them after an IRS audit was completed.

Further adding to the challenges facing Trump’s outside lawyers, the team’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, resigned Thursday, according to two people familiar with his departure. Corallo did not respond to immediate requests for comment.

“If you’re looking at Russian collusion, the president’s tax returns would be outside that investigat­ion,” said a close adviser to the president.

Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s private lawyers, said in an interview Thursday that the president and his legal team are intent on making sure Mueller stays within the boundaries of his assignment as special counsel. He said they will complain directly to Mueller if necessary.

“The fact is that the president is concerned about conflicts that exist within the special counsel’s office and any changes in the scope of the investigat­ion,” Sekulow said. “The scope is going to have to stay within his mandate. If there’s drifting, we’re going to object.”

Sekulow cited Bloomberg News reports that Mueller is scrutinizi­ng some of Trump’s business dealings, including a Russian oligarch who purchased a Palm Beach mansion from Trump for $95 million in 2008.

“They’re talking about real estate transactio­ns in Palm Beach several years ago,” Sekulow said. “In our view, this is far outside the scope of a legitimate investigat­ion.”

The president has long called the FBI investigat­ion into his campaign’s possible coordinati­on with the Russians a “witch hunt.” But now, the president is coming face-to-face with a powerful investigat­ive team that is able to study evidence of any crime they encounter in the probe — including tax fraud, lying to federal agents and interferen­ce in the investigat­ion.

“This is Ken Starr times 1,000,” said one lawyer involved in the case, referring to the independen­t counsel who oversaw an investigat­ion that eventually led to House impeachmen­t proceeding­s against President Bill Clinton. “Of course, it’s going to go into his finances.”

Following Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey — in part because of his displeasur­e with the FBI’s Russia investigat­ion — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in a written order. That order gave Mueller broad authority to investigat­e links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigat­ion” and any crimes committed in response to the investigat­ion, such as perjury or obstructio­n of justice.

Mueller’s probe has already expanded to include an examinatio­n of whether Trump obstructed justice in his dealings with Comey, as well as the business activities of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

Trump’s team could potentiall­y challenge whether a broad probe of Trump’s finances prior to his candidacy could be considered a matter that arose “directly” from an inquiry into possible collusion with a foreign government.

The president’s legal team also has identified what they allege are several conflicts of interest facing Mueller, such as donations to Democrats by some of his prosecutor­s.

Another potential conflict claim is an allegation that Mueller and Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia had a dispute over membership fees when Mueller resigned as a member in 2011, two White House advisers said. A spokesman for Mueller said there was no dispute when Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, left the club.

Trump also took public aim on Wednesday at Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein, whose actions led to Mueller’s appointmen­t. In an interview with the New York Times Wednesday, the president said he never would have hired Sessions if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the case.

Some Republican­s in touch with the White House said they viewed the president’s decision to publicly air his disappoint­ment with Sessions as a warning sign that the attorney general’s days are numbered. Several senior aides were described as “stunned” when Sessions announced Thursday morning he would stay on at the Justice Department.

Another Republican in touch with the administra­tion described the public steps as part of a broader effort aimed at “laying the groundwork to fire” Mueller.

“Who attacks their entire Justice Department?” this person said. “It’s insane.”

Currently, the discussion­s of pardoning authority by Trump’s legal team is purely theoretica­l, according to two people familiar with the ongoing conversati­ons. But if Trump pardoned himself in the face of the ongoing Mueller investigat­ion, it would set off a legal and political firestorm, first around the question of whether a president can use the constituti­onal pardon power in that way.

“This is a fiercely debated but unresolved legal question,” said Brian Kalt, a constituti­onal law expert at Michigan State University who has written extensivel­y on the question.

The power to pardon is granted to the president in Article II, Section 2, of the Constituti­on, which gives the commander in chief the power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachmen­t.” That means pardon authority extends to federal criminal prosecutio­n but not to state level or impeachmen­t inquiries.

No president has sought to pardon himself, so no courts have reviewed it. Although Kalt says the weight of the law argues against a president pardoning himself, he says the question is open and predicts such an action would move through the courts all the way to the Supreme Court.

“There is no predicting what would happen,” said Kalt, author of the book “Constituti­onal Cliffhange­rs: A Legal Guide for Presidents and Their Enemies.”

Other White House advisers have tried to temper Trump, urging him to simply cooperate with the probe and stay silent on his feelings about the investigat­ion.

On Monday, lawyer Ty Cobb, newly brought into the White House to handle responses to the Russian probe, convened a meeting with the president and his team of lawyers, according to two people briefed on the meeting. Cobb, who is not yet on the White House payroll, was described as attempting to instill some discipline in how the White House handles queries about the case. But Trump surprised many of his aides by speaking at length about the probe to the New York Times two days later.

Some note that the Constituti­on does not explicitly prohibit a president from pardoning himself. On the other side, experts say that by definition a pardon is something you can only give to someone else. There is also a common-law canon that prohibits individual­s from serving as a judge in their own case. “For example, we would not allow a judge to preside over his or her own trial,” Kalt said.

A president can pardon an individual at any point, including before being charged with a crime, and the scope of a presidenti­al pardon can be very broad. President Gerald Ford pardoned former president Richard M. Nixon preemptive­ly for offenses he “committed or may have committed” while in office.

“They’re talking about real estate transactio­ns in Palm Beach several years ago. In our view, this is far outside the scope of a legitimate investigat­ion.”

— Jay Sekulow, lawyer for Donald Trump

 ?? MONSIVAIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS] [PABLO MARTINEZ ?? Amid the ongoing controvers­y about possible links between the Trump team and Russia, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet military personnel during a visit Thursday to the Pentagon.
MONSIVAIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS] [PABLO MARTINEZ Amid the ongoing controvers­y about possible links between the Trump team and Russia, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet military personnel during a visit Thursday to the Pentagon.
 ??  ?? Mueller
Mueller

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States