Posted on 03/28/2018 1:03:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The discussions came as the special counsel 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 Mr. Trumps lawyers were concerned about what Mr. Flynn and Mr. Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in exchange for leniency. Mr. Muellers team could investigate the prospect that Mr. Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.
Mr. Dowds conversation with Mr. Flynns lawyer, Robert K. Kelner, occurred sometime after Mr. Dowd took over last summer as the presidents personal lawyer, at a time when a grand jury was hearing evidence against Mr. Flynn on a range of potential crimes. Mr. Flynn, who served as Mr. Trumps first national security adviser, agreed in late November to cooperate with the special counsels investigation. He pleaded guilty in December to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and received favorable sentencing terms.
Mr. Dowd has said privately that he did not know why Mr. Flynn had accepted a plea, according to one of the people. He said he had told Mr. Kelner that the president had long believed that the case against Mr. Flynn was flimsy and was prepared to pardon him, the person said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Uhhh... Three?
(1) Schiff, (2) his dog and (3) his goldfish.
Too bad W. Bush lacked the cojones to pardon Scooter Libby.
Great point. He knew who the leaker was, and still let Scooter pay the price....
I think he should pardon them both.
the more writers, the less I read.
imagine 5 NYT “journos” sitting around working on each sentence until it comes out “right”....for their own agenda.
can’t sink much lower than this one, though.
To me, the only “scandalous” part is that the former lawyer has a big mouth - can see why he is no longer on board.....a lawyer overstepping and a president being in on it are different things - one must assume the lawyer knew trump likes Flynn and decided he would “negotiate” even w/o the President’s explicit consent.
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