Trump’s lawyer raised possibility of pardons for Manafort, Flynn last summer

The following article by Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website March 28, 2018:

Professor Louis Seidman, an expert in constitutional law, explains how President Trump could use his executive privilege to pardon himself or others. (Video: Ashleigh Joplin/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump’s lawyer told attorneys representing Paul J. Manafort and Michael Flynn last year that the president might be willing to pardon his former aides if they faced criminal charges stemming from an investigation into Russia’s election interference, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

The president’s lead lawyer at the time, John Dowd, was described as floating the idea of a pardon for Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and Flynn, the former national security adviser, at a vulnerable moment for the two men. Both Flynn and Manafort had contacts with Russians while advising Trump and were under investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team, but neither had been charged at that point. Continue reading “Trump’s lawyer raised possibility of pardons for Manafort, Flynn last summer”

Trump is considering presidential pardons. Ford never recovered from the one he gave Nixon.

The following article by Kayla Epstein was posted on the Washington Post website July 22, 2017:

President Gerald Ford had barely been in office for a month when he made the most consequential decision of his short presidency: To pardon Richard M. Nixon.

It was an act from which Ford never recovered — and newly relevant as recent revelations about President Trump have renewed interest in the presidential pardon.

Ford, Nixon’s vice president, assumed the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974, soon after Nixon resigned in disgrace over Watergate. But the weight of the scandal remained a burden on the White House — and the country. Continue reading “Trump is considering presidential pardons. Ford never recovered from the one he gave Nixon.”