“Ad hoc” system – Donald Trump would have sold a pardon

The list of allegations against ex-US president Donald Trump is long. So far, the 45th president of the United States has been charged with inciting an attempted coup and illegally deleting top secret documents – he also allegedly attempted to commit election fraud and falsified documents to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.

Trump recently became the first US president in history to be found guilty of civil sexual assault. But now things could be even more legally awkward for the billionaire. An ex-colleague of his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, claims that Trump and her former boss have put up a presidential pardon for sale. The alleged price for legal absolution: $2 million.

Indictment with consequences for Trump?
The controversial claim was made in a complaint against Giuliani by Noelle Dunphy. The New York-based public relations expert is suing the former New York mayor for “unlawful abuse of power, widespread assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct” for $10 million in damages.

According to the lawsuit, ex-President Trump’s former attorney “frequently solicited oral sex” and other sexual practices between 2019 and 2020. Once he is said to have asked: “You are like a daughter to me. Is that weird?” while sexually assaulting her. In addition, Giuliani regularly insisted “that she work naked, in a bikini or in shorts, wearing an American flag he bought her.”

The indictment specifically mentions an interaction around February 16, 2019, when Giuliani was still serving as personal counsel to the then US president. Giuliani was tasked with finding incriminating material about Joe Biden. He then communicated with Ukrainian officials, among others, who, according to Dunphy, should have been reported.

Wealth by grace?
Giuliani has claimed he can “break laws” because he enjoys “immunity”. Public relations expert Dunphy explains in the indictment that at the time, her boss asked her “if she knew anyone who needed a pardon” because he was “selling a pardon for $2 million that he and President Trump would split.”

It continues: “He informed Ms Dunphy that she could refer people to him for clemency as long as they did not go through the ‘normal channels’ of the Office of the Parolees Attorney as correspondence to that office would be subject to the Government Information Disclosure Act .”

And it is precisely this back door that Trump has often used. During his presidency, he repeatedly pardoned wealthy or well-connected Americans without consulting the Justice Department, which is responsible for reviewing leniency applications. So far there is no evidence that money was ever paid for this.

However, the price quoted by Giuliani’s former employee matches an earlier claim. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was jailed in 2012 for revealing the identity of an agent involved in torture, gave the New York Times the same number in 2021. Two million dollars.

Systematic grace
The last days of the Trump presidency have been particularly chaotic. For example, he pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been convicted of tax fraud and witness hunting.

The New York Times reported at the time that the White House had an “ad hoc” system for granting pardons to “defuse the Justice Department’s intensive vetting process designed to identify the most deserving recipients from thousands of leniency applications.” .

Kiriakou told the US newspaper that his request for clemency was made during a meeting with Giuliani who “had a lot of alcohol involved” in early 2020. When Trump’s lawyer stumbled into the bathroom, an unnamed aide told him: “It’s going to be $2 million – he’ll want $2 million.”

Giuliani denied the allegations
He just laughed and said, “Two million dollars – are you crazy? Even if I had $2 million, I wouldn’t spend it to raise a $700,000 pension.”

Giuliani denied the allegations at the time. Although he had also heard that large fees were offered for a pardon, “but I have enough money. I am not hungry.”