Congress is investigating whether Michael Cohen's former attorney broached President Donald Trump's lawyers to inquire about the possibility of a pardon in an attempt to induce Cohen to continue lying, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Stephen Ryan first mentioned the idea of a pardon with Trump's legal team, Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow, and Joanna Hendon, following the FBI's raid on Cohen's home in April of last year. Giuliani, according to the WSJ, said it was a possibility in the future.
Ryan reportedly left the impression Cohen would cooperate with prosecutors investigating him if he could not rely on a pardon.
Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer who pleaded guilty to eight charges, including lying to Congress, eventually broke with Trump and said he would publicly not an accept an offer.
Last week before three House committees, he testified Trump directed him to lie about hush money payments to an adult film actress and implicated the president's oldest son in the arrangement of those payments. Cohen, who is due to report to prison in early May for a three-year sentence, also said he never asked for, "nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump."
But Giuliani said: "I cannot discuss conversations with other counsel other than to say anyone who asked me about pardons I repeated what president has said that pardons would not be considered at this time."
House Democrats on Monday announced a sweeping investigation into the president and his associates that will cover "three main areas," including public corruption, obstruction of justice, and abuses of power. The committee sent letters to 81 people and entities – including the Justice Department, White House, senior campaign officials, Trump Organization officials, and Trump's sons – and have demanded responses within two weeks.
Sekulow and a former lawyer, Mark Corallo, were requested to provide documents related to "possible pardons" for Cohen.
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