Washington(CNN) There is currently "no need" to pardon President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short said Monday.
"There's no need," Short told CNN's "New Day" co-anchor Chris Cuomo. "There's no need for that at this point, Chris. I think that the President, of course, all of us are frustrated. We're very frustrated with the scope of the investigation and the way it's dragged on."
Short was apparently referring to special counsel Robert Mueller, whose office referred the case to the Southern District of New York which led to a raid earlier this month on Cohen's home, hotel room and office as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into his business dealings.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, however, did not rule out the possibility that Trump could pardon Cohen.
"I don't think that we are going to talk about hypotheticals that don't exist right now," Sanders told reporters at the White House Monday morning.
The raid has led to speculation that Cohen -- a top Trump confidante -- could cooperate with federal authorities. And Jay Goldberg, a longtime attorney for Trump, expressed concern to CNN's Erin Burnett last week that Cohen will lie to prosecutors to get leniency on his own charges.
A US president can pre-emptively pardon individuals after they commit crimes but before they are charged. President Gerald Ford used this mechanism to pardon President Richard Nixon before he could face charges in the Watergate scandal.
The speculation that Trump could pardon Cohen comes in the wake of the President's pardon of ex-Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby earlier this month and Trump's weekend disclosure that he's considering granting a posthumous one to boxer Jack Johnson on the advice of actor Sylvester Stallone.