I've been thinking about this and all options seem pretty bad at this point for the Trump team. It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle on much of this. Whitaker cannot un-indict people. So what is Trump's way forward here?
Pardons are probably the most effective strategy at this point. And if he chooses to pursue this route, he'd want to do it before much makes it into the public record. After that point, claim executive privilege on the information. The downside to the use of pardons is that if subpoenaed, those pardoned cannot claim the 5th amendment in refusing to answer any questions about this. And if they choose to lie, they commit another federal crime. And the strategy of trying to hide the investigation information via executive privilege isn't going to work. The courts and leaks will make sure most of the information finds the light of day. And politically, it will be disastrous and expose the president to obstruction of justice and possibly other crimes related to this. In regard to obstruction and pardons, you have to prove corrupt intent which seems like a slam dunk. I wonder what the statute of limitations is for federal obstruction because he's not getting re-elected and he cannot pardon himself.
I suspect this has been gamed in every which way by Trump's attorneys and they do not feel its advantageous at this point, but I would not be surprised if Trump pardons Manafort before Mueller has a chance to put information into the public record that proves that Manafort (and by extension Trump) are lying about material aspects of the investigation. So if this route is chosen, I expect to see one very soon. But it's also obvious that they Trumps attorneys leaked the information about his answers (Trump Tower meeting). So it's possible they are advising to not use pardons until after the process is completed.