Thread by @SethAbramson

BREAKING NEWS: "[Trump attorney Rudy] Giuliani left open the possibility that the president could grant Mr. Cohen [a pardon] in the future" wsj.com/articles/lawye…

1/ Giuliani apparently floated the pardon in response to Cohen's lawyer "[leaving] the impression that if Cohen couldn’t rely on a pardon, he might cooperate with prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office."

Sort of sounds like Giuliani is a Conspiracy to Obstruct suspect now.

2/ It also sounds like Giuliani tried to cover up what he said to Cohen's lawyer, telling media that when asked if Trump will issue a pardon, "I always give the same answer, which is, ‘[Trump] is not going to consider any pardons at this time and nobody should think that he is.'"

3/ Prosecutors generally love it when an attorney who's committed a crime lies about it afterward by way of claiming they said the opposite of what they did—as it really helps bring the "mens rea" required for the crime home by the suspect's consciousness-of-guilt after the fact.

4/ I'm not sure this story endangers Cohen as opposed to Giuliani, not just because it's Trump who's under investigation for Obstruction—which Giuliani looks to have helped with—but also because what Cohen said to Congress is, "I've never asked for a pardon from President Trump."

5/ We don't know that Cohen asked his lawyers to ask Trump for a pardon—they may well have floated that possibility as part of their representation of their client. It's Giuliani who should have shut the conversation down. It's not clear Cohen ever *did* "ask Trump" for a pardon.

6/ Indeed, given Cohen's testimony—in which he said he couldn't discuss his last talk with Trump—it seems likely that during a last one-on-one it was *Trump* who floated a pardon, which possibility Giuliani's statement to Cohen's lawyer would now *corroborate*. So, bad for Trump.

7/ We should further entertain the possibility that Cohen taped his last chat with Trump, in which case the chances he asked for a pardon are basically zero and he'd have the necessary corroboration—along with Giuliani's statement—to confirm any claim that Trump floated a pardon.

8/ So I disagree with those who assume that, because this was in the WSJ, it's bad for Cohen. I think it's more likely that it's bad for Giuliani and Trump than it's bad for Cohen, though it's possible that the WSJ source—if not from Cohen's camp—wrongly thought it bad for Cohen.

9/ Cohen early on publicly said he wouldn't accept a pardon from Trump—months before his Congressional testimony—which seems to increase the odds he recorded Trump illegally offering a pardon (Obstruction) and needed to make a public record of his refusal. But we don't know yet.

10/ I don't think folks understand that the case for Trump on Obstruction isn't a page long and involving just a couple incidents, it's by now more like—really—100+ pages long with a timeline involving 25+ incidents all pointing in the same direction: an impeachable offense. /end