An attorney for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen approached President Trump’s legal team about a potential presidential pardon for his client after Cohen’s home, hotel and office were raided by the FBI last April, The Wall Street Journal reported.
As was revealed in the document request drop by House Democrats on Monday, the communications about a potential pardon for Cohen are now being probed by congressional investigators.
According to people familiar with the discussions who spoke to the WSJ, Stephen Ryan — Cohen’s attorney at the time — spoke to Trump lawyers Jay Sekulow, Rudy Giuliani and Joanna Hendon about a potential pardon, which the team waved off at the time. Giuliani reportedly told Ryan it wasn’t a lost cause and could be revisited in the future. Ryan also spoke to Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, about the possibility of a pardon.
Ryan reportedly told the various Trump lawyers that Cohen would consider cooperating with the government if he couldn’t rely on the President for a pardon, the people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.
During testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week, Cohen told congressional investigators that he had never personally asked for a pardon from Trump, “nor would I accept” one. A spokesperson for Cohen told the WSJ that the President’s former fixer “stands by his testimony.”
