Breaking: Trump tells Fox host he's thinking about pardoning this former aide

President Donald Trump told a Fox News host Wednesday that he is considering pardoning a former aide because he feels sorry for him.

'He mentioned pardoning...'

Ainsley Earhardt went on the Sean Hannity show to preview her exclusive interview with the president, and she revealed that he told her he was considering pardoning Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager who was convicted Tuesday of five tax evasion charges, two smaller bank fraud charges, and one charge of failure-to-report.

Hannity was asking if the president was angrier with Manafort or former lawyer Michael Cohen, who plead guilty Tuesday and accused the president of ordering him to commit campaign finance fraud.

"He mentioned pardoning Manafort," Earhardt responded, "and then you have Michael Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis..."

"He did mentioning pardoning Manafort?" Hannity interjected.

"He did," she replied, "He did, and said that he would consider that."

"He feels, I think he feels so, I think he feels bad for Manafort," she explained. "They were friends, he didn't work for him for very long, he worked for him for basically a hundred days.

"The president didn't know about this tax stuff," she added. "Of course, he wouldn't know about that."

Ainsley said that Trump reminded her that Manafort had worked with former President Ronald Reagan, a frequent comment from the president, and added that he thought Manafort was being attacked only because they hated the president so much.

Here's the video of Ainsley admitting what Trump told her:

Earhardt was referring to Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, when Hannity interrupted her. Davis has excoriated the president since Cohen took the plea deal, and has claimed that the president is guilty of committing crimes involved with ordering Cohen to violate campaign finance rules.