Giuliani: Trump shouldn’t issue pardons in Russia investigation

As long as Rudy Giuliani is serving as President Donald Trump’s lawyer, he’ll advise the president to say no to pardons in the Russia investigation, Giuliani told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday morning.

“The president has issued no pardons in this investigation," Giuliani said on "State of the Union.” "The president is not going to issue pardons in this investigation."

“And my advice to him, as long as I’m his lawyer, is not to do it," he added. "Because you just cloud what is becoming now a very clear picture of an extremely unfair investigation with no criminality involved of any kind. I want that to come out loud and clear and not get clouded by anybody being fired or anybody being pardoned.”

But that doesn’t mean that pardons couldn’t still be an option down the road, Giuliani added – but Giuliani himself will be staying out of it.

“When it’s over, hey, he’s the president of the United States. He retains his pardon power,” he explained. “Nobody’s taking that away from him. He can pardon in his judgment based on the Justice Department, counsel’s office, not me. I’m out of it. And I shouldn’t be involved in that process because I’m probably too rooted in his defense, but I couldn’t and I don’t want to take prerogatives away from him.”

Tapper’s questions were prompted by the recent jailing of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in a witness-tampering case.

Giuliani’s comments come just a few days after the New York Daily News reported that he had said the Russia investigation could be “cleaned up” thanks to presidential pardons – but Giuliani has stuck to his “no pardons” bottom line, telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Saturday that he has continued to advise the president against offering pardons, lest the administration lose the momentum he says it currently has in the case.

The original story can be found here.