Paula Duncan, the one Paul Manafort juror who has been speaking to reporters about her experience with the trial, says President Trump, whom she supports, should not pardon his former campaign chairman
“He should absolutely not pardon him. I think it would be a big mistake,” Duncan, 54, told Reuters after an on-camera interview on Friday, adding that she believed it would be a mistake from both a moral and a political perspective.
“If President Trump pardons him without him doing any time at all it would look like President Trump was saying it’s OK that you broke the law. It’s not OK to break the law.”
Trump weighed in on Manafort’s plight while the jury was still in deliberations, calling the tax and bank fraud case against him “very sad” and lauding him as a “very good person.”
Those comments, along with tweets following the verdict, have heightened speculation that Trump may look to pardon Manafort. When asked directly about the prospect, Trump has not ruled it out.
Duncan believes the Trump talking point that Manafort's crimes only came to light because the special counsel unfairly is targeting the president, but now that he has been convicted, he needs to face the consequences.
“He’s still guilty ... and he now needs to pay for the laws he broke.”
Politico reports White House officials fully expect the president to ignore all advice and pardon Manafort, saying his behavior and public remarks indicate he wants to use his "unilateral authority."
“Trump is setting it up. He’s referring to the investigation as a ‘witch hunt’ and saying this never would have happened to an aide to Hillary Clinton,” said one former campaign official.
(...)
Members of the president’s informal group of outside advisers, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have stepped in over the past few weeks to caution the president against exonerating Manafort before the midterms.
“He certainly does not need to do it. The things Manafort has been convicted of have nothing to do with Trump,” Gingrich told POLITICO. “The president thinks Manafort’s biggest crime was running the Trump campaign. If he had run the Clinton campaign, then he would have gotten immunity and never would have had any problems.”
(...)
Gingrich and others are telling the president it would cause a political firestorm that establishment Republicans and Democrats alike would rally against, and would make Trump look like he is dangling a quid pro quo to potential witnesses in the myriad investigations involving the Trump campaign, creating further legal exposure for the president.
JUROR AND TRUMP SUPPORTER WARNS PRESIDENT NOT TO PARDON MANAFORT (Reuters)
Aides expect Trump to go rogue on Manafort pardon (Politico)