--- title: White House Denies Pardon Talk With Michael Flynn, Manafort description: The White House denied that President Donald Trump is considering pardoning former aides tangled in the special counsel's investigation. canonical: https://time.com/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-28T18:31:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:48:15.475Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Denies Considering Pardons for Flynn and Manafort og:description: Shortly after a report that his former lawyer broached the idea in 2017. og:url: https://time.com/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte48242bd62120eea/6988f3aa7cdbac9d9ad5b1c3/paul-manafort-russian-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Bond Hearing Held For Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Denies Considering Pardons for Flynn and Manafort twitter:description: Shortly after a report that his former lawyer broached the idea in 2017. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte48242bd62120eea/6988f3aa7cdbac9d9ad5b1c3/paul-manafort-russian-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Denies Considering Pardons for Flynn and Manafort > 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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 28, 2018 6:31 PM UTC  Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort leaves the Prettyman Federal Courthouse after a bail hearing November 6, 2017 in Washington, DC. Manafort and his former business partner Richard Gates both pleaded not guilty Monday to a 12-charge indictment that included money laundering and conspiracy. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort leaves the Prettyman Federal Courthouse after a bail hearing November 6, 2017 in Washington, DC. Manafort and his former business partner Richard Gates both pleaded not guilty Monday to a 12-charge indictment that included money laundering and conspiracy.Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 28, 2018 6:31 PM UTC The White House denied that President Donald Trump is considering pardoning former aides tangled in the special counsel’s investigation, soon after the New York _Times_ reported his former personal attorney had mentioned the idea. Speaking at the daily briefing, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement White House lawyer Ty Cobb provided to the _Times_, in which he said, “I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House.” “Ty Cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this,” she said, directing the press to his statement. Sanders continued that “the president has the authority to pardon individuals,” but that the cases mentioned by the _Times_ have not been discussed in the White House, and that she is “not aware” of any conversations between Trump and Dowd on this issue. A [New York _Times_ report](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/us/politics/trump-pardon-michael-flynn-paul-manafort-john-dowd.html) published Wednesday afternoon said that [Trump’s former lawyer](http://time.com/5208957/donald-trump-lawyers-legal-team/), John Dowd, broached the idea of pardoning former advisers Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort with their lawyers last year, citing three unnamed people with knowledge of the discussions. The discussions happened just as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was looking into both men’s conduct, the _Times_ reported. **Read More:** [_Democrats Are Worried Trump Will Secretly Pardon People. Can He Do That?_](http://time.com/4933386/donald-trump-secret-pardon-law/) In October, Mueller indicted Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, and his associate Rick Gates on charges of failing to register as agents of a foreign government, providing false statements about their lobbying work with the Ukrainian government, among other things. Manafort pleaded not guilty. In December, Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, [pleaded guilty](http://time.com/5045202/michael-flynn-statement-guilty-plea-donald-trump/) to making false statements to the FBI over the course of the investigation. In February, Gates [pleaded guilty](http://time.com/5192036/paul-manafort-gag-order-judge/) to financial fraud and lying to investigators. The White House and Trump’s lawyers have regularly argued that the president is not considering pardons. > [](https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/941718062172114944) Shortly after the Washington _Post_ [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-lawyers-seek-to-undercut-muellers-russia-investigation/2017/07/20/232ebf2c-6d71-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.01196e9dbf5e) in July of 2017 that some of his lawyers had discussed using pardons to undercut Mueller’s investigation, Trump noted in a tweet that he has the “complete power to pardon.” > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/888724194820857857) And at the time of Flynn’s plea, Trump [would not rule out](http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-says-hes-not-yet-ready-talk-about-flynn-pardon) pardoning Flynn. “I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet,” he told a reporter. “We’ll see what happens. Let’s see.” Even if Trump did issue pardons, experts warn it could backfire. He can’t pardon for offenses under state law, meaning staffers could still be in legal jeopardy depending on their actions, and pardoned officials would no longer be able to avoid testifying publicly. As president, Trump has [granted pardons](http://time.com/4916920/donald-trump-pardons-joe-arpaio/) to former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for criminal contempt and [a Navy sailor](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-pardons-former-navy-sailor-convicted-of-retaining-submarine-pictures-in-case-that-drew-comparisons-to-clinton/2018/03/09/401eae26-23e2-11e8-86f6-54bfff693d2b%5Fstory.html) who took photos of classified areas of a submarine and then destroyed the evidence when he faced an investigation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/"},"headline":"White House Denies Considering Pardons for Flynn and Manafort","datePublished":"2018-03-28T18:31:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:48:15.475Z","description":"The White House denied that President Donald Trump is considering pardoning former aides tangled in the special counsel's investigation.","url":"https://time.com/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/","keywords":["White House","russia","Donald Trump","Michael Flynn","onetime","Paul Manafort","Robert Mueller"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte48242bd62120eea/6988f3aa7cdbac9d9ad5b1c3/paul-manafort-russian-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte48242bd62120eea/6988f3aa7cdbac9d9ad5b1c3/paul-manafort-russian-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bond Hearing Held For Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort","caption":"Bond Hearing Held For Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort","creditText":"Mark Wilson—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/5219244/donald-trump-pardons-michael-flynn-paul-manafort/","name":"White House Denies Considering Pardons for Flynn and Manafort"}}]}] ```