Giuliani Says Lawyers Have Sought Trump Pardons for Their Clients – The New York Times

The prosecutors followed up with Mr. Cohen to ask for additional details about the pardon discussions, the people said, though there is no indication that they suspect anyone involved in the conversations of wrongdoing.

ABC News reported on Wednesday that lawyers claiming to have ties to Mr. Giuliani sought out Mr. Cohen to discuss his options as prosecutors closed in on him last year.

It was not clear that Mr. Costello was ever formally retained by Mr. Cohen. Mr. Costello declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege, but added that he would be free to comment if Mr. Cohen waived that privilege.

Mr. Giuliani said that Mr. Cohen should waive the privilege if he was confident in his version of events, and insisted that he personally had never urged anyone to do anything other than cooperate with the investigations. He said his discussions with Mr. Cohen’s lawyers were always when they were sharing information under a joint defense agreement.

“I would say with a few lawyers: You shouldn’t make any decision based on the assumption of a pardon,” Mr. Giuliani said in recounting the discussions.

A current lawyer for Mr. Cohen, Lanny J. Davis, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

It is unclear who broached the subject of a potential pardon — Mr. Cohen or Mr. Costello. In his testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week, Mr. Cohen declared in his opening statement that, “I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.”