Pardons for Manafort, Flynn may have been discussed
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for President Donald Trump broached the idea of Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The discussions came as special counsel Robert Mueller was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, who resigned last week, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.
The talks suggest that Trump’s lawyers were concerned about what Flynn and Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with Mueller in exchange for leniency. Mueller’s team could investigate the prospect that Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.
Dowd’s conversation with Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, occurred at a time when a grand jury was hearing evidence against Flynn on a range of potential crimes. Flynn, who served as Trump’s first national security adviser, agreed in late November to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation. He pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and received favorable sentencing terms.
Dowd has said privately that he told Kelner that the president had long believed that the case against Flynn was flimsy and was prepared to pardon him, one source said.
The pardon discussion with Manafort’s attorney, Reginald Brown, came before his client was indicted in October on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes. Manafort, the former chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign, has pleaded not guilty.
It is unclear whether Dowd discussed the pardons with Trump before bringing them up with the other lawyers.
Dowd denied Wednesday that he discussed pardons with lawyers for the president’s former advisers.
‘‘There were no discussions. Period,’’ Dowd said.
In interviews with Mueller’s team, current and former administration officials have recounted conversations they had with Trump about potential pardons for former aides under investigation, according to two people briefed on the interviews.
The Justice Department’s inspector general, facing increasing political pressure from Republicans in Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said Wednesday that his office would investigate the surveillance of a former Trump campaign official.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, said he would examine whether law enforcement officials complied with the law and departmental policies in seeking permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap the former campaign adviser, Carter Page. Law enforcement officials had long had concerns that Page was acting as a Russian agent.
Republicans have seized on details about the court-ordered surveillance of Page as evidence that the Justice Department abused its authority in the Russia investigation. Horowitz did not name Page in his announcement.
Horowitz’s decision fell short of demands that the Justice Department appoint a special counsel to investigate possible abuses.