Cohen gives Congress emails he says shows Trump legal team dangled a pardon after FBI raid

Michael Cohen has shared with Congress documents he says shows President Trump's legal team dangled the possibility of a pardon.

CNN on Wednesday published emails between Robert Costello, an associate of Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Cohen, from April 2018, a few weeks after Cohen's home and office were raided by the FBI. Costello, who was considering representing Cohen, said in the emails he had just spoken with Giuliani and that the conservation was "very very positive" and "they are in our corner."

While not mentioning a pardon specifically, Costello went on to tell Cohen he should "sleep well tonight" because "you have friends in high places." Cohen, CNN reports, has provided Congress with these emails as evidence that Trump's circle had dangled a pardon; Trump has accused Cohen of lying in his testimony when he said he never asked for a pardon. Cohen later said through his lawyer that he did ask about it but didn't request a pardon from Trump personally.

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Costello told CNN that the idea that these emails represent a pardon being dangled is "utter nonsense," saying he raised the issue with Giuliani briefly at Cohen's request and that Giuliani said Trump wouldn't discuss it. "If that's dangling it, that's dangling it for about 15 seconds," said Costello. Giuliani also told CNN this email was simply about reassuring Cohen that "the president was not mad" because "it wasn't long after the raid and the president felt bad for him," while Costello similarly said Cohen "wanted to make sure that Trump knew that he didn't hate Trump." Read more at CNN.