President Trump told reporters on Friday that he has not been talking about pardoning his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and argued that the press is discussing it more than he is.
“I don’t even discuss it, the only one discussing it is you,” he said when asked about a potential pardon just a day after Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison. “I haven’t discussed it. I know that in watching and seeing you folks at night that Michael Cohen lied about the pardon. It was a stone cold lie. He has lied about a lot of things, but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie.”
Trump said he felt “very badly” for his former campaign chairman, but reiterated his belief that the sentencing shows there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort, I think it has been a very, very tough time for him, but if you notice both his lawyer, a highly respected man and very highly respected judge said there was no collusion with Russia,” he said. “This had nothing to do with collusion. There was no collusion. It’s a collusion hoax, it’s a collusion witch hoax. I don’t collude with Russia.”
Trump says he hasn't discussed Manafort pardon pic.twitter.com/1OGkZLMuqd
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 8, 2019
