White House principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Monday that there had been “no discussions internally” at the White House about a number of potential pardons for Trump associates caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
In an interview with Gidley, MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson played a clip of former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo calling on Trump to pardon Roger Stone, against whom a grand jury handed down a seven-count indictment as part of Mueller’s probe; and George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn, who both pled guilty in response to Mueller charges.
“We’ve had no discussions internally about these potential pardons,” Gidley said.
He added: “We’ve had no conversations about any potential pardons moving forward. We have a very rigorous process as it relates to pardons, but we’ve had no conversations internally about this at this point.”
Gidley said he didn’t know whether lawyers for Stone, Papadopoulos or Flynn had reached out to the White House counsel or not, but “I can tell you internally we’ve had no conversations. The President hasn’t had a conversation, and we haven’t had one with him either.”
Stone was indicted in January on one count of obstructing an official proceeding, five counts of false statements and one count of witness tampering. He pleaded not guilty. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is awaiting sentencing.
Trump has refused to rule out pardons for the likes of Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Hogan Gidley: “We’ve had no discussions internally about these potential pardons." pic.twitter.com/a1lK0gRCvt
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) March 25, 2019
