President Trump recently asked his lawyers for their advice on the possibility of pardoning Paul Manafort and other aides accused of crimes, his lawyer said Thursday. 
 
 The subject of pardoning Manafort came as Trump’s former campaign chairman faced multiple charges of bank fraud and tax evasion in an Alexandria criminal case, Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said in an interview. 
 
 Trump’s lawyers counseled the president against the idea of pardoning anyone linked to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, according to Giuliani, saying Trump should at least wait until special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has concluded his probe. Giuliani said the president agreed and did not push the issue further. 
 
 “He said yes,” Giuliani said. “He agreed with us.” 
 
 Giuliani said Trump was seeking advice in the wake of a spate of pardons he granted earlier this summer, including for a woman whom Kim Kardashian had lobbied the White House to release. Giuliani said he and fellow personal attorney Jay Sekulow had advised waiting to see whether Mueller delivers a damning report that accuses the president of trying to block a federal probe of his campaign’s contacts with Russians. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday that she “wasn’t aware” of any discussions of Trump pardoning Manafort and that the topic was “not something that’s been up for discussion.” 
 
 On Thursday, in the wake of Giuliani’s comment, Sanders said the pardon topic is not under active consideration “in the White House.” 
 
 “This pardon is not something being discussed in the White House and the president has not made a decision on pardoning Paul Manafort or anyone else,” she said in a statement. 
 
 The exact timing and nature of the pardon discussion is unclear. 
 
 A senior administration official said the president discussed the pros and cons of granting pardons to Manafort and others linked to a probe of his campaign “a few weeks ago.” 
 
 Giuliani initially said he and Trump had the conversation “three to five weeks ago” but later corrected his statement to say he believed they discussed it several weeks earlier, in June. Giuliani clarified in a follow-up call to The Post that his conversation with Trump was a general discussion about potential pardons for a range of people under investigation, including but not limited to Manafort. 
 
 Some experts have argued Trump could expose himself to more legal danger if he were to pardon aides who are witnesses in the Mueller probe, because Mueller is examining the president’s own conduct and whether he sought to obstruct justice. 
 
 Giuliani acknowledged that risk. 
 
 “We sat him down and said you’re not considering these other pardons with anybody involved in the investigation. He said yes, absolutely, I understand,” Giuliani said. “The real concern is whether Mueller would turn any pardon into an obstruction charge.” 
 
 Other Trump associates who have pleaded guilty as part of Mueller’s investigation include former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. 
 
 Mueller’s findings are supposed to be provided in a report to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who would then decide whether any evidence of wrong­doing was serious enough that it should be presented to Congress to consider for impeachment proceedings. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly decried the government’s treatment of Manafort — who a jury found guilty Tuesday on eight counts of tax- and bank-fraud charges. Manafort refused to cooperate with Mueller investigators seeking his information about the Trump campaign and instead took his chances at trial. 
 
 On Tuesday, the president told reporters that Manafort was a “good man” and that he felt sorry for him. 
 
 Trump tweeted his support of Manafort on Wednesday while criticizing Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a bank and two campaign finance violations: willfully causing an illegal corporate contribution and making an excessive campaign contribution. 
 
 “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” Trump tweeted. “ ‘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!” 
 
 Inside the West Wing, the prospect of a Manafort pardon is met with near universal opposition. Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, White House counsel Donald F. McGahn and attorney Emmet T. Flood are all opposed. Aides are trying to keep Trump from even discussing the matter. After Ainsley Earhardt, the Fox News anchor, said Wednesday night that Trump discussed a pardon while appearing on Fox News, Sanders asked her to clarify her comments that she did not hear Trump say that, according to a person familiar with the matter. Officials are increasingly frustrated with Giuliani inside the West Wing. 
 
 Trump has admiringly talked about how Manafort did not “flip” on him and was ebullient when Judge T.S. Ellis said that the prosecution only wanted to go after Manafort to get him. Asked about a pardon, one senior White House official said: “What does it accomplish? You pardon him, it doesn’t get rid of the Mueller probe, it causes you more headaches, he still has another trial, you have more Republicans coming after you.” 
 
 “Legally he’s entitled to pardon Manafort,” said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard professor that Trump likes to watch on TV. “My advice to the president is don’t tweet, don’t pardon, don’t testify, don’t fire.” 
 
 That was a major shift for Trump, who in April called it a “national disgrace” when federal investigators raided Cohen’s home and office as part of an investigation into his efforts during the campaign to squelch embarrassing stories about Trump. 
 
 Cohen implicated Trump directly in some of his acts when he pleaded guilty Tuesday, saying he arranged to pay off two women to keep their stories of alleged affairs with Trump from becoming public before Election Day — in coordination with the then-candidate. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly expressed his anger at how federal prosecutors had “beat up” and mistreated Manafort. The president’s critics argue that Trump’s public tweets are a thinly-veiled message to Manafort, that he supports his refusal to cooperate with Mueller and is willing to pardon him in the future. 
 
 Giuliani said Trump’s concern for Manafort is what motivates him to consider a pardon. 
 
 “He feels Manafort has been mistreated. Nobody in a case like this gets raided in the middle of the night, put in solitary confinement,” Giuliani said. “They tried to crack him and it didn’t work. Over the last two to three weeks, he’s expressed anger and frustration about how he’s been treated.” 
 
 This story has been updated. 
 
 Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report. ||||| Trump: 'I have the absolute right to pardon myself' 8:40 AM ET Tue, 5 June 2018 | 01:00 
 
 President Donald Trump said Monday he has "the absolute right" to pardon himself — but added that he has "done nothing wrong." 
 
 The tweet followed The New York Times' publication of a confidential letter over the weekend, in which Trump's lawyers argued to special counsel Robert Mueller that the president's broad powers mean he could not have obstructed justice. 
 
 The 20-page letter also suggested that the president even wields the constitutional ability to exercise the pardon power in matters related to the special counsel's probe of the links between the Trump campaign and Russia. 
 
 The assertion that a U.S. president holds an "absolute" power to pardon himself was endorsed on Sunday by Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and a current member of Trump's legal team. 
 
 Read more: Trump lays out two rationales for pardoning himself in the Mueller probe 
 
 In an ABC News interview, Giuliani said Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself, though "he has no intention" of doing so. 
 
 In word and action, Trump's latest uses of the pardon power could hold implications for how the president plans to act as the Russia probe, and the numerous lawsuits it has spawned, move forward. 
 
 Trump exercised his power to pardon last week for a sixth time, for conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted of making an illegal campaign contribution. In a tweet, Trump said D'Souza "was treated very unfairly by our government!" 
 
 Later that day, Trump told reporters he was considering pardoning celebrity lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and was considering commuting the sentence of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. He said both also had been treated "unfairly." 
 
 Stewart was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to five months for a conviction related to a stock-selling scheme. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was sentenced in 2011 to 14 years in prison on corruption convictions, including trying to trade the Senate seat that became vacant when President Barack Obama went to the White House. Stewart and Blagojevich had ties to Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" reality TV show. 
 
 But Trump's latest tweets suggest he may be considering pardons for the very people who could be offering information about him to federal investigators. 
 
 In just over a year, the special counsel has issued more than a dozen indictments, against Russians accused of working to affect the 2016 election as well as former Trump campaign officials, such as former campaign chief Paul Manafort. 
 
 Mueller's team has also secured guilty pleas from Trump's first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, and Manafort's longtime associate, Rick Gates, among others. Both men have agreed to fully cooperate with the probe. 
 
 No president has ever pardoned themselves. But a Justice Department memorandum from 1974 — shortly before the resignation of President Richard Nixon — asserted that the president did not possess such a power. 
 
 "Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself," Mary Lawton, former acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, said in the memorandum. 
 
 Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor who runs a commutations clinic at the University of St. Thomas, said the most controversial legal question is not the pardon itself, but what comes after. 
 
 "He can issue himself a pardon warrant. There is nothing to stop him from doing so," Osler said. "The question is what happens next. It could be that it could not be challenged until a prosecutor presented a charge against him, and he relied on the pardon as a defense." 
 
 Trump attacked the legal legitimacy of the special counsel in a follow-up tweet. Mueller's team, which was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May 2017, is "totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL," Trump said. 
 
 The president maintained in both tweets that he has done "nothing wrong." 
 
 Numerous Trump campaign associates and other individuals have been interviewed as part of Mueller's investigation. While Trump has previously said he would like to participate in an interview, the letter argues that the special counsel must meet a high standard to prove that only the president himself could provide the information they seek. 
 
 The special counsel is also looking into whether an obstruction of justice occurred as part of the investigations into Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. 
 
 But Trump's lawyers contend in the letter that the commander in chief "could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself, and that he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired." 
 
 A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment on Trump's tweets. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. 
 
 --CNBC's Tucker Higgins contributed to this report. ||||| New talk of President Trump Donald John TrumpMichelle Obama says not always easy to live up to "we go high" Georgia certifies elections results in bitterly fought governor's race Trump defends border deployment amid fresh scrutiny MORE possibly pardoning himself drew pushback from Republicans on the Sunday show circuit this week. 
 
 Both congressional Republicans and the president's attorney Rudy Giuliani urged caution that a self-issued pardon could be politically problematic for Trump. 
 
 But Giuliani said the president “probably” has the power to give himself a pardon even though doing so would prove to be difficult. 
 
 “I think the political ramifications of that would be tough. Pardoning other people is one thing. Pardoning yourself is another,” Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week.” 
 
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 “Other presidents have pardoned people in circumstances like this, both in their administration and sometimes the next president, even of a different party will come along and pardon,” he continued. 
 
 On NBC's "Meet the Press," Giuliani went even further, saying that such a move "would just be unthinkable, and it would lead to probably an immediate impeachment." 
 
 The issue took the spotlight on Sunday after the revelation Saturday that Trump's legal team had sent a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE in January arguing that the president holds the power to pardon "if he so desired." 
 
 The confidential 20-page note, first obtained by The New York Times, states that the president has constitutional authority over federal probes, making it impossible for Trump to have obstructed justice and giving him the ability to end Mueller's investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. 
 
 “It remains our position that the President’s actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer, could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself, and that he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired,” the letter reads. 
 
 But Republican members of Congress during their Sunday show appearances expressed concern that a self-pardon would put the president in a compromising position. 
 
 “I think that would be a terrible move. I think people would erupt. I think even thinking about trying to fire Mueller is a bad move politically,” Rep. Will Hurd William Ballard HurdElection Countdown: Florida Senate race heads to hand recount | Dem flips Maine House seat | New 2020 trend - the 'friend-raiser' | Ad war intensifies in Mississippi runoff | Blue wave batters California GOP Midterm results shake up national map Election Countdown: Lawsuits fly in Florida recount fight | Nelson pushes to extend deadline | Judge says Georgia county violated Civil Rights Act | Biden, Sanders lead 2020 Dem field in poll | Bloomberg to decide on 2020 by February MORE (R-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS’s “Face the Nation." 
 
 “So I hope we don’t have to get to that point. And it’s hard to predict what would happen, but that would create outrage on both sides of the political aisle.” 
 
 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthyTrump heads to California to meet first responders amid deadly wildfires Hillicon Valley: Russian-linked hackers may have impersonated US officials | Trump signs DHS cyber bill | Prosecutors inadvertently reveal charges against Assange | Accenture workers protest border enforcement work | App mines crypto for bail bonds McCarthy, other Republicans back Ratcliffe to be next attorney general MORE (R-Calif.) echoed Hurd's concerns, but suggested that a self-pardon isn't necessarily on Trump's agenda. 
 
 “The president is not saying he is going to pardon himself,” McCarthy told CNN’s “State of the Union.” 
 
 “I don't know why we're walking through hypotheticals here in this process. The president has never said he would pardon himself. I don't know where the president would go forward pardoning himself, but I don't think a president should pardon themselves,” McCarthy added. 
 
 On ABC News Sunday, Giuliani affirmed that the president “has no intention of pardoning himself.” 
 
 According to a March report from the Times, a former Trump lawyer had suggested pardons for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Paul John ManafortMueller could turn easy Trump answers into difficult situation Mueller asks for delay in Gates sentencing: filing Mueller targets Stone in final push MORE. 
 
 Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski Corey R. LewandowskiEx-Breitbart reporter: White House accusations against Acosta are 'projection' Lewandowski says it's 'natural' for officials to leave White House after midterms Corey Lewandowski says GOP will have 'much better' night than expected MORE, however, on Sunday dismissed this possibility for Flynn, stating that the president is not considering a pardon for his former aide. 
 
 “But never ever ever has this president said — to the best of my knowledge — that he’s even thinking about a pardon for Mike Flynn,” Lewandowski told “Fox News Sunday.” 
 
 Lewandowski also denounced an assertion from former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone Roger Jason StoneMueller could turn easy Trump answers into difficult situation Surprise disclosure puts Assange in US spotlight Trump says he has finished Mueller questions, but has not submitted answers MORE, who said in a recent interview that the president's most recent pardon was sending a “signal” to the special counsel. 
 
 "Indict people for crimes that don’t pertain to Russian collusion and this is what could happen," Stone told The Washington Post last week. 
 
 In a controversial move, the president pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza on Thursday, and has floated the idea of pardoning celebrity Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). 
 
 Lewandowski dismissed D'Souza's pardon as a "one-off opportunity." 
 
 Trump has issued other pardons during his tenure that have sparked criticism, including pardoning former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was a top adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney. 
 
 But Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russia’s election interference and any potential ties between Trump campaign officials and Moscow has raised alarms that Trump could pardon his allies, or even himself, should he need to do so. 
 
 Preet Bharara Preetinder (Preet) Singh BhararaGOP senator suspects Schumer of being behind release of Ford letter Preet Bharara questions whether Trump will respect ‘presidential alert’ system Republicans shift course after outside counsel falters MORE, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — whom Trump fired last year after he refused to resign from his post — said a sitting U.S. president pardoning himself would be “outrageous.” 
 
 “I think if the president decided that he was going to pardon himself, I think that it is almost self-executing impeachment,” Bharara told CNN’s “State of the Union.” 
 
 “Whether or not there is a minor legal argument that some law professor somewhere in a legal journal can make that the president can pardon, that is not what the Framers could have intended. That's not what the American people, I think, would be able to stand for.”
– President Trump has discussed the political fallout of a potential pardon for Paul Manafort, whom he believes "has been horribly treated"—and understands a pardon is off the table, at least for now, according to Rudy Giuliani. The president's personal lawyer made the comments to the New York Times on Wednesday before elaborating to the Washington Post. Claiming the conversation occurred "three to five weeks ago" then correcting that timeline to June, Giuliani said Trump had brought up the possibility of a pardon but both Giuliani and fellow attorney Jay Sekulow advised against it, at least before the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. "We sat him down and said you're not considering these other pardons with anybody involved in the investigation," Giuliani said. That would ostensibly include former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and campaign aide Rick Gates, all of whom have pleaded guilty as part of the Mueller probe. "He said yes, absolutely, I understand," Giuliani continued. "The real concern is whether Mueller would turn any pardon into an obstruction charge." Still, the president has been publicly praising Manafort since his Tuesday conviction on eight counts of financial fraud. "Some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in Washington probably does," Trump told Fox News on Thursday, a day after he took to Twitter to praise Manafort for refusing to "break" for prosecutors. "Such respect for a brave man!" he wrote.