President Trump said Monday he has not considered pardoning people who were targeted by special counsel Robert Mueller’s now-concluded Russia investigation.
“Haven’t thought about it,” Trump said when asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he plans to pardon people who pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes in the probe.
{mosads}The question of whether Trump would offer clemency to Mueller’s targets was renewed Sunday after the president bemoaned that “so many people have been so badly hurt” by the investigation, which ended without stating that Trump colluded with Moscow to influence the 2016 election.
Trump has previously refused to rule out a pardon for his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for a raft of financial crimes connected to his work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.
The president has also not said whether he may pardon Roger Stone, his on-again, off-again political adviser who was indicted for obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements about his contact with WikiLeaks about emails that were stolen from top Democrats during the 2016 campaign.
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters there is “no discussion I’m aware of on any pardons at this point.”
Trump’s legal advisers urged him not to pardon any Mueller targets while the investigation was ongoing out of concern it would fuel the notion he was trying to obstruct the probe.
Mueller ended his investigation without determining whether Trump committed obstruction, according to Attorney General William Barr. Barr added that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided not to bring obstruction charges against Trump due to lack of definitive proof.
–Updated at 1:21 p.m.