President Trump today praised his convicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort as “brave” after he lied to special counsel Robert Mueller, and hinted that a pardon could be coming.
It’s really beyond what Richard Nixon could have ever envisioned.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump did not rule out the possibility of pardoning Manafort, who was convicted in Mueller’s Russia probe.
“It was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?” Trump said during an interview with the New York Post.
Trump also intensified attacks on Mueller after the special counsel accused Manafort of lying to investigators after agreeing to cooperate with authorities.
Trump suggested Mueller’s team was attempting to induce Manafort, as well as his onetime adviser Roger Stone and associate Jerome Corsi, to lie to incriminate him or others.
“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,” Trump said, adding “if you told the truth, you go to jail.
Trump again praised Manafort as “brave,” a label he first used to describe his former campaign boss in August after his conviction on bank and tax fraud charges.
The president also likened the Russia investigation to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s infamous probe of Communist influence in the 1950s.
“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,” Trump added.
Critics suggested Manafort was feeding false information to Mueller in order to get back in the president’s good graces and angle for a pardon.
Manafort is in a joint defense agreement with Trump and his legal team was reportedly in communication with the president’s lawyers during the period of his cooperation.