ABC News reports:
Shortly after Paul Manafort was sentenced to another 43 months behind bars on conspiracy charges by a federal judge in Washington, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that any presidential pardon “would be an obstruction of justice.”
“Pardoning Paul Manafort would in effect send a message that you can break the law, defy the justice system and then get rewarded by the president of the United States,” Blumenthal said. A top Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also chimed in on the prospect.
“Pardoning Manafort would be seen as a political disaster for the President,” Graham told reporters. “There may come a day down the road, after the politics have changed, that you’d want to consider an application of him like everybody else. But now would be a disaster.”