President Trump sought counsel from his attorneys about a potential pardon for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as he faced charges of tax and bank fraud in federal court, according to a report.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, told the Washington Post that Trump discussed the topic of pardoning Manafort several weeks ago. The president’s attorneys advised against pardoning anyone tied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Giuliani said.
He and Jay Sekulow, another member of Trump’s legal team, told Trump to at least wait until Mueller had completed his investigation, according to the Washington Post.
“We told him he should wait until all the investigations are over,” Giuliani said. “This [special counsel] case is a strange case. It won’t be decided by a jury. It will [be] decided by the Justice Department and Congress and ultimately the American people. You have to be sensitive to public optics.”
Trump agreed, Giuliani told the Washington Post.
[Related: Chuck Schumer warns Trump against pardoning Cohen, Manafort]
Manafort was charged with 18 counts of bank and tax fraud, and his trial in Alexandria, Va., was the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
On Tuesday, after four days of deliberations, a 12-member jury found Manafort guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud. A federal judge declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 charges.
Giuliani told the Washington Post the subject of a pardon came up as Trump was frustrated with how prosecutors “beat up” Manafort.
“He feels Manafort has been mistreated,” he said. “Nobody in a case like this gets raided in the middle of the night, put in solitary confinement. 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.”
Manafort was hired by the Trump campaign in March 2016 and promoted to campaign chairman two months later.
Trump has spoken highly of Manafort during the course of the trial. On Wednesday, the president took to Twitter to deride Mueller’s probe and the trial, calling Manafort a “brave man” he felt “very badly” for.
But the White House also distanced Trump from Manafort’s wrongdoing.
“The Manafort case doesn’t have anything to do with the president, doesn’t have anything to do with his campaign, doesn’t have anything to do with the White House,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday.
