White House Says It’s Premature To Discuss If Trump Will Pardon Flynn

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders speaks during a White House daily briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House October 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press... White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders speaks during a White House daily briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House October 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press(Sipa via AP Images) MORE LESS
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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that she hadn’t spoken to President Donald Trump about the possibility of pardoning his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI.

“Yesterday, the President said that he felt very badly for Gen. Flynn,” ABC News’ Cecilia Vega said. “Would he consider pardoning him?”

“I’m not aware that that has come up, or any process or decision on that front,” Sanders said.

“You haven’t talked to him about it?” Vega asked.

“No, I haven’t asked the President whether or not he would do that” Sanders said, adding: “I think before we start discussing pardons for individuals we should see what happens in specific cases, too.”

“So is it fair to say it’s on the table?” Vega asked.

“No,” Sanders replied. “I just said I haven’t had the conversation with him because I don’t feel that it’s necessary until we get further down the the road and determine whether or not that’s even something needed.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Why does the media bother with this grotesque person?

  2. So this is OT but there seems to be some confusion over the Deutsch Bank subpoena story (as Josh is alluding to). Anyone know anything? WSJ says yes, but the story has not appeared on WaPo or NYT.

  3. I wonder if the charges were limited to only one count of lying to the FBI, which would seem to me that any pardon would be limited to that count.

  4. Mueller set up his plea deal to address this risk. He only agreed to not prosecute Flynn for the specific lies outlined in the Statement of Offense. Everything else is fair game. A few of those claims, like kidnapping and bribery, can be prosecuted at the state level and therefore out of the reach of Trump.

    There is no value to a pardon of Flynn. It would admit Trump had something to hide and would be legally suspect. It would incriminate everyone who participated in the lies and cover up (not that he cares, but Jared is one of them). Flynn would lose his right to self-incrimination and would be forced to spill the beans. No good way for Trump to benefit from a Flynn or Manafort pardon (though legally speaking, Manafort’s charges aren’t specifically tied to the campaign activity). The pardon is a vestige of the absolute/divine right of monarchs. It was limited on purpose for self-interested acts like ‘cases of impeachment’.

  5. Avatar for erik_t erik_t says:

    Serious question: does anybody ever discuss anything with Donald Trump unless he brings it up? Do they bring him questions, concerns, warnings for what might be coming up in the future? Try to get their yuuuge, classy, golden ducks in a row before getting called to the carpet? When/if they ever do so, they probably do it with Kelly, right? Don’t let the twit-in-chief fuck things up until he absolutely has to?

    I actually believe SHS in this case, I don’t think anybody’s intentionally raised the issue with Trump. I think it’s a defense mechanism, nothing more.

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