The way Joe Lockhart sees it, Paul Manafort‘s legal team is trying to piece Donald Trump‘s tweets together in order to come up with something that the president will approve of and respond to with a reprieve.

The former White House Press Secretary joined CNN on Tuesday to talk about how Manafort’s lawyers are asking for leniency in his sentence despite him breaking his plea deal with Robert Mueller. John Berman specifically asked Lockhart for what he thought about how Manafort’s lawyers are going out of their way to note that their client isn’t being charged with anything directly related to Mueller’s investigation into possible Trump-Russian collusion.

Lockhart answered that the judge won’t care about that, but the president might.

“This was written, cobbled together, with all the president’s tweets. It was written for the president and the president alone, to say, ‘You’re being persecuted here, Donald Trump. I’m being persecuted for the same thing. Help me out here, pardon me.’ That’s what it’s all about.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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