Noah Feldman, Columnist

Pardon Talk Could Put Trump Lawyer in Hot Water

It's John Dowd, and not the president, most at risk if a quid pro quo was offered.

March 28, 2018 at 8:20 PM UTC

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."

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Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

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If John Dowd discussed the possibility of a presidential pardon with lawyers for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort while Dowd was serving as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, it’s a big deal -- definitely for Dowd, and conceivably for Trump.

The president has the inherent power to pardon anyone he wants. But doing so with a corrupt reason -- such as saving the president’s skin -- would be obstruction of justice.