President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday that he has not ruled out issuing a pardon to Paul Manafort, his one-time campaign manager who was found guilty of multiple federal charges three months ago.
Trump made the remark during an interview with the New York Post.
"It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table," Trump said in the Oval Office. "Why would I take it off the table?"
Manafort was found guilty of financial crimes in August, and in September he struck a plea deal over charges involving money laundering and foreign lobbying. His prosecution came as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, which began in May 2017 over allegations that the Trump campaign had improper ties to Russia.
Also caught up in Mueller's net is political consultant Roger Stone and his associate Jerome Corsi.
"If you told the truth, you go to jail," Trump told the Post. "You know this flipping stuff is terrible. You flip and you lie and you get — the prosecutors will tell you 99 percent of the time they can get people to flip. It's rare that they can't.
"But I had three people: Manafort, Corsi — I don't know Corsi, but he refuses to say what they demanded. Manafort, Corsi and Roger Stone."
Trump said the three men have been "very brave" in their dealings with Mueller.
"And I'm telling you, this is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era. This is no better than McCarthy. And that was a bad situation for the country. But this is where we are. And it's a terrible thing."
On Tuesday, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he would advise Trump not to consider pardoning Manafort now, but that he should not rule it out in the future.
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