Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump-Manafort Collusion Is Bad for the Rule of Law

The president’s brazen talk about his ability to pardon his associates is distorting the special counsel’s investigation.

November 28, 2018 at 5:17 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Not shy about pardons.
Photographer: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

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There’s just one conceivable reason for Paul Manafort’s lawyers to be meeting with President Donald Trump’s during Manafort’s plea negotiations: Manafort was looking for a pardon, and Trump’s lawyers were dangling the possibility, whether expressly or implicitly.

Of all the troubling aspects of Trump’s behavior during this investigation, the hint of pardon abuse is the worst.