Encourages recount — you might say 'pardon' (9)
I believe the answer is:
exonerate
'pardon' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'encourages recount you might' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'you' could be 'one' (I've seen this before) and 'one' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'say' is the link.
(Other definitions for exonerate that I've seen before include "Free of duty" , "Free from obligation, blame" , "Declare to be free from blame" , "Release" , "free of charge" .)