Former CIA Director John Brennan predicted Monday that President Trump will pardon his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
“I don’t have any doubt that Mr. Trump is going to pardon Paul Manafort at some point. The question is when,” Brennan said on MSNBC, where he is a contributor. He also noted that if Manafort faces state charges, Trump can’t save him from those.
WATCH: Former CIA Director John Brennan says he believes Paul Manafort will be be able to get out of federal charges. #MTPDaily@JohnBrennan: “I don’t have any doubt that Mr. Trump is going to pardon Paul Manafort at some point. The question is when.” pic.twitter.com/9IIpEi5NI3
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 11, 2019
Manafort, a longtime lobbyist who led a presidential campaign, got less than four years behind bars for eight financial crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The decision by T.S. Ellis III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and serves on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, defies a requested prison term of 19 to 24 years by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Manafort’s light sentence could be extended this week in a Washington, D.C., federal court in an illegal lobbying case.
Trump, who has been highly critical of Mueller’s Russia investigation, told the New York Post in an interview late last year that while he hadn’t discussed a pardon for Manafort, it was not “off the table.” The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said this suggestion adds to evidence that he is “engaged in obstructing justice.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday when Trump will “make his decision” on whether to pardon Manafort “when he’s ready.”
