so laura, do you want to respond to that? because i have another question for you. i can say certainly, this is very inartful, the way it s going down. but remember, he s not going to gamble on that crap shoot of whether the president of the united states ear will bend to his request for a pardon. we see the president doesn t follow even the formal pardoning process of things. albeit there s a kim kardashian west in the oval office who s been able to articulate a reason to pardon someone justifiably. but normally speaking, he has not followed the protocol. i doubt cohen or his legal counsel is trying to bank on that effort. i think what s happening here, realistically, and it s a stretch to try to get into the mind of this particular person, but what he s counting on, remember, it s not something that can be a two-way street. a prosecutor has to be actually interested in giving you a plea offer or a deal. you can t solicit that opportunity and if you do try to do that, it has to be
frankly. it doesn t seem to be working. we saw guiliani last hour trashing cohen. but what i think, the only way to make sense of this strategy, to the extent it s a strategy, is that it s meant to tell the president s team, look, if you don t pardon me, and he can pardon cohen before he s charged, he can pardon him at any time. if it you don t pardon me, i ve got the goods on you and i m going to make your life very difficult, so i m trying to get your attention here and let you know i m very serious. that s the only way i can make sense of the strategy that doesn t seem to make sense otherwise. okay. so laura, do you want to respond to that? because i have another question for you. i can say certainly, this is very inartful, the way it s going down. but remember, he s not going to gamble on that crap shoot of whether the president of the united states ear will bend to his request for a pardon. we see the president doesn t follow the normal pardoning process of things. albeit kim
case of obstruction of justice, and manafort needed to go in. caroline, what do you make of that? you could make the argument, i imagine, from somebody trying to defend rudy giuliani here that, hey, yes, the president has the power to pardon. that s very clear. he can pardon anybody at any time for any reason. so if his lawyer goes out there and simply says, by the way, the president has this sort of unbridled power here, could a case emerge from that? we don t need to be reminded that he has the sort of unfettered power. that is true that it says so in the constitution and there are no limits except you can t pardon for an impeachment proceeding. you know, we ve seen donald trump sort of use the pardon power with reckless abandon, you know, scooter libby, dinesh d souza, jack johnson. i think what he s trying to do is normalize the pardoning process even though he does it in a way that s inconsistent with procedures that prior presidents have done it. giuliani and he are laying th
he absolutely knows that s not true and this was a serious case of obstruction of justice and manafort needed to go in. carolyn what, do you make of that? you could make the argument i page from somebody tryinto defend rudy giuliani here, yes, the president has the power to forwarden, anybody at any time for any reason. if his lawyer says by the way, the president has this sort of unbridled power here, cog a case emerge from that. we don t need to be reminded he has the sort of unfettered power. that is true it says so in the constitution and there are no limits except you can t pardon. you can t pardon for an impeachment proceeding. we ve seen donald trump sort of use the pardon power with reckless abandon. scooter libby dineshdy souza did, for jack johnson. he s trying to normalize the pardoning process even though he does it in a way inconsistent with the procedures that prior
ayesha. i wanted to ask about the pardoning process. it seems like we have had these three pardons. they all were somewhat high-profile or gotten media attention. how is the president deciding when to take action on a case, i mean with arpaio, he hadn t even been sentenced yet. the libby case was very old. how are you deciding when to take action on these cases? and can a normal person who feels like they have been unjustly convicted, can they get their case to the white house? i mean there is a justice department process, but it seems like the president is taking special interest in certain cases. again, the president has exercised constitutional authority, and he determines when and how he s going to use that when it comes to the pardon process. he looks at each one individually and makes a decision. and we make that announcement. nadia. what are you calling?