White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci on Sunday appeared to contradict official Trump administration talking points when he revealed that he had spoken to President Donald Trump about the possible use of the president's pardon power.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Scaramucci why Trump tweeted about his "complete power" to pardon last week if no crimes had been committed.
"Why even talk about pardons?" Wallace wondered.
"This is one of those things about Washington, the convolution and the nature of things," Scaramucci explained. "I'm in the Oval Office with the president last week and we were talking about that, he says he brought that up, but he doesn't have to be pardoned, there's nobody around him that has to be pardoned. He was just making the statement about the power of the pardon."
"Now, all of the speculation and all of the spin is he's going to pardon himself," he added. "The president does not need to pardon himself. And the reason he doesn't need to pardon himself is he hasn't done anything wrong."
Scaramucci's remarks seemed to be in conflict with the president's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, who was speaking to ABC News at the same time.
"I want to be clear on this, we have not, and continue to have not, conversations with the President of the United States regarding pardons," Sekulow said. "Pardons have not been discussed and pardons are not on the table."
"We’re not researching the issue, because the issue of pardons is not on the table. There is nothing to pardon from."
