he said i never asked for a pardon at that hearing under oath. and now we re learning that he did reach out to his lawyers back when he was in the joint defense agreement with donald trump to explore the possibility of a pardon. the way lanny davis explains that is that there was a time when he was cooperating with trump in the liar s club as davis puts it and then a time when he broke and came clean and that is what he is referring to this latter time in his testimony. we have some sound from lanny on that. let s take a listen to that. when he decided on july 2nd, 2018, i will not lie any more, at that point he said i want you to publicly say i won t accept a pardon if he begged me to take it. and i said, are you sure? and he said yes. but again this was not made by cohen under oath at his hearing. and so it does create a credibility problem for him, n stephanie and we ll see where that leads. and he already has a
checks. the statement that michael made was after he made a decision and i think i was part of that when he decided to express his shame for his prior lies when he was certainly looking at the option of pardon when they were dangling that as a way of i think luring people to stay within the tent. and then when he decided on july 2nd, 2018, i will not lie anymore and he asked me to help him tell the truth. so that sentence, which i helped write was about the time period after he decided as we decided to call it his turn to the truth and at that point, he said to me i want you to publicly say i wouldn t accept a pardon if he begged me to take it, and i said are you sure? and he said yes. and i went out publicly and i said he would never accept a pardon and that was the reference intended by that sentence.
was after he made a decision and i think i was part of that when he decided to express his shame for his prior lies when he was certainly looking at the option of pardon when they were dangling that as a way of i think luring people to stay within the tent. and then when he decided on july 2nd, 2018, i will not lie anymore and he asked me to help him tell the truth. so that sentence, which i helped write was about the time period after he decided as we decided to call it his turn to the truth and at that point, he said to me i want you to publicly say i wouldn t accept a pardon if he begged me to take it, and i said are you sure? and he said yes. and i went out publicly and i said he would never accept a pardon and that was the reference intended by that sentence. why wouldn t he accept a pardon? who has not accepted a pardon?