WH: No Talk of Pardons for Flynn or Manafort in Russia Probe

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied Wednesday that President Donald Trump's former lead attorney had raised the issue of pardons for former aides in the Russia probe, as was reported by The New York Times.

Sanders read a statement from Ty Cobb, the president's lead attorney in the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, saying that "I've only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House."

The Times reported that John Dowd, Trump's lead attorney before resigning last week, raised the issue in discussions with attorneys for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The report cited "three people with knowledge of the talks."

Dowd denied to the Times that he discussed pardons with the lawyers for Flynn and Manafort.

"Ty Cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this," Sanders told reporters, "and he's got a statement on the record saying that there's no discussion and there's no consideration of those at this time at the White House.

"As we've said pretty much every day since we've got here, because you guys continue to ask about this topic every single day, there was no collusion," she later said.

"We're very confident in that and look forward to this process wrapping up."

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