--- title: Scaramucci: Donald Trump 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody' description: Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, said Sunday that President Trump is "thinking about pardoning nobody canonical: https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-23T14:34:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T05:29:37.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Scaramucci: Trump is 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody' og:description: He called the investigation into Russia's election interference "nonsensical" og:url: https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad76581ec6f44cd/6988d6cfe76ad2779b62e715/anthony-scaramucci-pardoning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: White House Communications Team Reshuffled, With Sean Spicer Resignation And Anthony Scaramucci Appointed Director og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scaramucci: Trump is 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody' twitter:description: He called the investigation into Russia's election interference "nonsensical" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad76581ec6f44cd/6988d6cfe76ad2779b62e715/anthony-scaramucci-pardoning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Anthony Scaramucci: President Trump Is 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:29 AM UTCPublished: Jul 23, 2017 2:34 PM UTC  Anthony Scaramucci answers reporters' questions during the daily White House press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 21, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Anthony Scaramucci answers reporters' questions during the daily White House press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 21, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:29 AM UTCPublished: Jul 23, 2017 2:34 PM UTC Incoming [White House communications director](http://time.com/4869439/anthony-scaramucci-white-house/) [Anthony Scaramucci](http://time.com/4868645/anthony-scaramucci-white-house-sean-spicer-what-to-know/) said Sunday morning that President Donald Trump is “thinking about [pardoning nobody](http://time.com/4868418/donald-trump-presidential-pardons-backfire/),” responding to questions about the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “The President’s thinking about pardoning nobody — because it has been coming up a lot. There’s an undercurrent of nonsensical stuff,” Scaramucci [told CNN’s Jake Tapper](https://twitter.com/CNN/status/889112510867148802) on Sunday when asked about Trump’s recent tweet about [his pardoning power](http://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/). “While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS,” Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/888724194820857857) early Saturday. Tapper referenced [a Washington _Post_ report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-lawyers-seek-to-undercut-muellers-russia-investigation/2017/07/20/232ebf2c-6d71-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5%5Fstory.html?amp;amp;utm%5Fterm=.b8fbe21aa5b0&hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrumplegal-925pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm%5Fterm=.2d1e0eca5fbb) that Trump has consulted advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and [himself](http://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/) in connection with the investigation. “This is the problem with the whole system,” Scaramucci said Sunday. “He’s the President of the United States. If I turn to one of my staff members at SkyBridge, I ask them a question, they run out to the news media and tell everything I’m thinking about, is that fair to the President?” “The truth of the matter is that the President is not going to have to pardon anybody because the Russia thing is a nonsensical thing,” Scaramucci added. Asked if Trump has the power to pardon himself, Scaramucci called it a “stupid hypothetical.” “We haven’t even really looked into that, I don’t know. I’ve talked to Jay Sekulow about that because he’s a scholar,” Scaramucci said, referring to an attorney on Trump’s legal team. In a separate Sunday [interview on ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-23-17-jay-sekulow-sarah-huckabee/story?id=48791003), Sekulow acknowledged that there is an ongoing “academic debate” over pardoning powers, but he said he has not discussed pardons with Trump, and he denied looking into it himself. “While it makes for interesting academic decisions, let me tell you what the legal team is not doing,” Sekulow said. “We’re not researching the issue, because the issue of pardons is not on the table, there’s nothing to pardon from.” > [](https://twitter.com/CNN/status/889112510867148802) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/"},"headline":"Anthony Scaramucci: President Trump Is 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody'","datePublished":"2017-07-23T14:34:42.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T05:29:37.000Z","description":"He called the investigation into Russia's election interference \"nonsensical\"","url":"https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad76581ec6f44cd/6988d6cfe76ad2779b62e715/anthony-scaramucci-pardoning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad76581ec6f44cd/6988d6cfe76ad2779b62e715/anthony-scaramucci-pardoning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House Communications Team Reshuffled, With Sean Spicer Resignation And Anthony Scaramucci Appointed Director","caption":"White House Communications Team Reshuffled, With Sean Spicer Resignation And Anthony Scaramucci Appointed Director","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4870095/donald-trump-president-pardon-russia-investigation/","name":"Anthony Scaramucci: President Trump Is 'Thinking About Pardoning Nobody'"}}]}] ```