After WH Silence, Trump Denies He Dangled Pardon For Border Official

The White House had no comment for The New York Times or CNN in response to their reports Friday that President Donald Trump offered a pardon to an administration official if he was found to have broken the law by carrying out the President’s direction to reject asylum seekers at the border.

Later on Friday, though, Trump said NBC News’ report on the matter was false. NBC News, as it happens, had no such report; it simply flagged the Times’ coverage instead.

Another Fake Story on @NBCNews that I offered Pardons to Homeland Securiy personnel in case they broke the law regarding illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. Of course this is not true. Mainstream Media is corrupt and getting worse, if that is possible, every day!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2019

It appears Trump was referring to reports from the Times and CNN that he recently told then-Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan — who’s since been named the acting Homeland Security Secretary following Kirjsten Nielsen’s ouster — that he would pardon McAleenan if, as a result of shutting down the border, McAleenan was found to have broken the law by denying access to asylum seekers.

Both CNN and the Times stipulated that, per their sources, it was unclear whether the President’s comment was meant to be a joke.

Trump reportedly made the comment even after punting on the idea of shutting down the border entirely. CNN reported separately, on Monday, that border agents’ superiors had to tell them not to follow the President’s direction not to let migrants in, lest the border agents be held personally legally liable.

CNN reported Friday:

Two officials briefed on the exchange say the President told McAleenan, since named the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that he “would pardon him if he ever went to jail for denying US entry to migrants,” as one of the officials paraphrased.

And the Times reported:

It was not clear what Mr. Trump meant by his request [to McAleenan to close the southwestern border to migrants,] or his additional comment to Mr. McAleenan that he would pardon him if he encountered any legal problems as a result of taking the action.

The White House referred both the Times and CNN to the Department of Homeland Security for comment Friday. A spokesperson for the department, giving the same statement to both outlets, did not specifically deny the reports about a pardon.

“At no time has the President indicated, asked, directed or pressured the Acting Secretary to do anything illegal,” he said. “Nor would the Acting Secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law.”

The Times’ Maggie Haberman, who co-bylined the paper’s pardon report, noted on Twitter what she called the White House’s “approach” to the requests for comment.

A) CNN and NYT reported this as well B) We reached out for comment from the WH on this shortly after 11 am this morning, and asked for comment three times. In case the WH approach is not clear here, it's to not comment and then have Trump say "fake news." https://t.co/oiQ6SXOJos

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2019

Re-reading this tweet – haven't seen NBC story but CNN and NYT reported accurately that POTUS said DHS's McAleenan should ignore Nielsen's refusal to close border to asylum seekers and he'd grant a pardon if McAleenan got in legal trouble for it. POTUS may be conflating 2 things https://t.co/oiQ6SXOJos

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2019