From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.
The talks suggest that Mr. Trump’s lawyers were concerned about what Mr. Flynn and Mr. Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in exchange for leniency. Mr. Mueller’s team could investigate the prospect that Mr. Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.
www.nytimes.com/
Wow — the optics of this are really brutal. Surely, floating the idea of a pardon was designed to keep Flynn and Manafort quiet. It means that Trump and Dowd both knew that Flynn and Manafort broke the law. AND that they were willing to potentially obstruct justice to prevent Flynn and Manafort from squealing on whatever crimes were committed by Trump himself.
Manafort appears to still be clinging to this dream of a pardon — he has been about as uncooperative with Mueller as possible. Flynn, on the other hand, entered a guilty plea and is cooperating with the Mueller team. Perhaps his son’s criminal exposure made the difference.