President Trump’s disgraced former fixer Michael Cohen told his attorney to ask the president’s lawyers about a pardon, according to a new report.
Cohen’s former lawyer Stephen Ryan was directed by Cohen to inquire about the possibility of a pardon last spring after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his home and office, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The revelation comes after Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times on Wednesday that lawyers whose clients are involved in the Justice Department investigation into Trump have approached him seeking pardons.
Giuliani said that despite the lawyers’ inquiries about presidential pardons, he has maintained that Trump would not consider granting pardons until long after investigations into them had concluded.
“I always gave one answer and they always left disappointed,” Giuliani said. He did not disclose which attorneys asked about the pardons.
Trump’s former personal attorney Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who alleged affairs with Trump as well as lying to Congress, is being investigated by committees in the House and Senate into whether he had discussions about a presidential pardon, the Washington Post reported over the weekend.
He testified publicly in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week and claimed he had “never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.”
A number of individuals and entities are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice, with their ties to Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign under scrutiny. Dozens have been indicted in the wide-ranging investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
