MICHAEL COHEN/PARDONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s advisers dangled the possibility of a pardon for his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen last year, Cohen’s attorney said Thursday [3-7-19], as congressional investigators zero in on the president’s pardon power. The issue of pardons has emerged as a key line of inquiry as Democrats launch a series of sweeping investigations into Trump’s political and personal dealings. Lanny Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, said in a written statement Thursday that his client was ‘open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media’ in the months after the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April 2018. Davis, who was not Cohen’s lawyer at the time, said Cohen “directed his attorney” to explore a possible pardon with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on Trump’s legal team. The statement appears to contradict Cohen’s sworn testimony last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Trump.”
–Associated Press, “Cohen’s Lawyer Says Trump Advisers Were ‘Dangling’ Pardons,” The New York Times online, March 7, 2019