Fox News Host Ainsley Earhardt said Wednesday night on the network’s “Hannity” that President Trump told her in an exclusive interview set to air Thursday that he was considering a pardon for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
“I think he feels bad for Manafort. They were friends, he didn’t work for him very long, worked for him for basically one hundred days,” she said. Manafort was involved with Trump’s campaign for five months.
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Manafort was convicted on Tuesday of eight charges of bank and tax fraud, including five charges of filing false income tax returns, one count of failing to report foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud. A federal judge declared a mistrial on 10 additional counts.
The decision notched a victory for special counsel Robert Mueller‘s legal team, who faced their first test in court in Manafort’s case.
Trump praised Manafort as “brave” shortly after his conviction, suggesting that Mueller brought an unfair case against Manafort in order to compel damaging testimony against him.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. ‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’ Such respect for a brave man!” Trump tweeted.
Mueller’s probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election were not major parts of the Virginia trial against Manafort.
Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to defend Manafort and reiterate a common jab at Mueller’s probe, writing, “A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case. Witch Hunt!”
A number of Republican senators have said that Trump pardoning Manafort would be a major misstep for his administration.
“It would be an enormous mistake and misuse of his power to pardon,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) added that a pardon “would be very damaging to the presidency and to his position as president.”
News of Manafort’s conviction came just minutes after Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to tax fraud, making a false statement to a financial institution and campaign finance violation, consequently implicating the president in a felony.
— Updated 10:40 p.m.