will you pardon paul manafort? i have not given it a thought as of this moment. it s not something that right now on my mind. i do feel badly for paul manafort. big question for president trump has been whether he would pardon his aides like manafort until tonight. that question in a very real sense may have been taken offer the table as new york prosecutors are aiming to check mate president trump with these new pardon proof charges indicting paul manafort on these 16 counts. you ve heard us mention this before in our reporting and it s big deal tonight. kit not be stressed enough. this is the nightmare that trump s lawyers have warned him about. these new new york charges tonight, that go after paul manafort in ways that donald trump cannot legally pardon. if convicted, and we just saw how much evidence there could be to use against manafort then trump couldn t really save him
pardon proof charges today. take a look. they re going after him for state taxes. they re going after him in new york state. he faced federal charges. right after the sentencing took place here in washington, d.c. the manhattan district attorney filed state charges against him which would seize to be a way to get around the effect of any pardon. i don t know anything about that. i ll take a look at it. david. i still think there s a value to a trump pardon with manafort. i don t know how many years he may end up with, if convicted, of these new charges in new york city. even so, if he s to get five years, getting rid of the seven years in the federal charges there s a big difference when you re 70 looking at five years or 12 years.
and the other thing about the state investigations is that they re pardon proof. this may be in part about roger stone and paul manafort, people that are in the don t be a snitch club about president trump. if they re not snictching on th promise of a pardon, then that ca can t insulate them from state prosecution because the president can t pardon them from that. so apparently that s one of the questions michael cohen will be answering tomorrow when he goes back to the hill. was he promised some kind of pardon, was that dangled in front of him. if that s the motive for why manafort and stone are acting so shady, not forthcoming, even though it is not in their own interest and staying out of prison, they need to be cooperating, why aren t they. if it is about a pardon, then the state prosecutions can get around that and michael cohen might have the goods on that as well. fascinating points you mac