President Trump has discussed the potential of granting his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort with a pardon, putting him at odds with White House counsel Don McGahn, according to a report Monday.
Manafort was found guilty last Tuesday on eight counts of bank and tax fraud — charges that did not concern his work with the Trump campaign. A mistrial was declared on 10 other charges brought against him as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
While Trump has publicly said that Manafort has not been treated fairly in Mueller’s probe and privately has been weighing a pardon for Manafort, McGahn adamantly opposes issuing a pardon for Manafort, Vanity Fair reports. As a result, Trump indicated that he is open to taking on a new lawyer to draft a pardon for Manafort.
“He really at this point does not care,” a former official told Vanity Fair. “He would rather fight the battle. He doesn’t want to do anything that would cede executive authority.”
[Juror: Pardon for Manafort would be a ‘grave mistake’]
The White House did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment, nor did a lawyer for McGahn.
Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether officials in the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Manafort’s conviction occurred the same day that Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts, including one count of willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of excessive campaign contribution on Oct. 27, 2016. The campaign finance violations pertained to payments Cohen made to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. They were paid per the direction of the “candidate” in exchange for their silence.
Trump has publicly asserted that the payments did not come from campaign funds and he has denied the alleged affairs ever happened. But Trump’s attorneys have argued he should confess to engaging in the affairs and say that the hush money had been given to them for years so the payments would be considered standard business rather than campaign donations, Vanity Fair reports.
Trump has declined to move forward with the suggestion.
“It was because of Melania,” one source said, according to Vanity Fair, referring to Trump’s wife, first lady Melania Trump.
[Opinion: Here’s why Trump will probably pardon Paul Manafort one year from now]
