Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Michael Cohen’s lawyer has said the former Trump fixer was open to a possible pardon from the president in the wake of an FBI raid on his home and law offices last April. In comments to The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday, Lanny Davis appeared to contradict his client. “During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump,” Davis was quoted as saying. He added there were discussions between Cohen’s lawyer and Trump’s lawyers that involved the “ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon.”
ABC News reported a slightly different version of events—that after the raid, Cohen was approached by two attorneys who claimed they were linked to Giuliani and urged him to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president. According to ABC, the lawyers did not explicitly offer a presidential pardon but implied that Cohen would be better off if he hired them and remained in the joint defense. Before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen said under oath that he had “never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.” Giuliani told The New York Times that “several” people under scrutiny by the Justice Department had approached him seeking pardons but that he “always gave one answer and they always left disappointed.”