Is Trump considering pardoning Paul Manafort?

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The U.S President Donald Trump said in an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday that he will not rule out pardoning his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The president informed the newspaper in his Oval Office, “It was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table”? Trump also said in an interview without any evidence that special counsel Robert Mueller has instructed Manafort and other Trump associates, to lie. He said, “If you told the truth, you go to jail. You know, this flipping stuff is terrible. You flip and you lie and you get the prosecutors will tell you 99% of the time they can get people to flip. It’s rare that they can’t”.

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has admitted in an interview that he has been in touch with Manafort’s lawyers regarding the Mueller investigation. That could prove to be a misstep should the president decide to pardon Manafort, according to former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman. Giuliani tweeted early Wednesday morning, “It never occurred to me that Manafort and his lawyers could be so stupid to back channel information to Trump, and therefore I did not think his lies were related to a pardon. A pardon now should result in Trump’s immediate expulsion from office”. On Wednesday, Trump angrily tweeted about the Mueller investigation. He wrote, “While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief”.