Rudy Giuliani suggests the Manafort business could 'get cleaned up with some presidential pardons'

Rudy Giuliani and President Trump. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani reacted to the news Friday that Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is being sent to jail for witness tampering by telling the New York Daily News that "things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons" when the "whole thing is over," the paper's Chris Sommerfeldt reports.

Giuliani has spent the last two days gunning for Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to suspend Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort was charged as a part of Mueller's probe with, among other things, conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to launder money.

Earlier Friday, Trump tweeted: "Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, and many other top political people and campaigns. Didn't know Manafort was the head of the mob." Giuliani, who famously prosecuted crime families while serving as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, likewise told Sommerfeldt: "I just don't understand the justification for putting [Manafort] in jail. You put a guy in jail if he's trying to kill witnesses, not just talking to witnesses."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.