Trump may be using pardons to send message to Manafort, Cohen
“My first thought is: Trump likes to do stuff where he can do it without asking anyone permission, and the pardon is the quintessential presidential power that is unreviewable. It makes him feel like a king, which is what he wants,” said Paul Rosenzweig, who served as senior counsel under special prosecutor Ken Starr during the Whitewater investigation and now works at the center-right D.C. think tank R Street.
“On the other hand, he’s not an idiot, and he knows the effect of what he’s doing on other people. He also probably thinks it’s a not-terribly-subtle, but reasonable, effective message to guys like Cohen and Manafort and all the others that he’s got their back — provided they stay loyal to him.”
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Rosenzweig said if he was Manafort or Cohen, he’d be thinking “where’s mine?” now that Trump has pardoned D’Souza.
It’s unclear whether Trump’s gambit will pay off — even if he were to issue a pardon to anyone involved in the Russia probe, he can only clear federal crimes, and state or local prosecutors could still go after his allies.
“Fraud is fraud, and so a pardon for Cohen or Manafort or [Trump’s unindicted son-in-law] Jared Kushner — if it ever came to that — would be a significant event,” Rosenzweig said. “But I don’t think it would be the silver bullet that President Trump may be hoping that it is.
