A former aide to Rudy Giuliani who is suing him for “unlawful abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft, and other misconduct” that he allegedly subjected her to while she worked for him in 2019 and 2020, says he told her that he and then-president Donald Trump were offering presidential pardons for $2 million apiece, The Independent reported.
According to Noelle Dunphy, Giuliani asked her “if she knew anyone in need of a pardon” because he was “selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.”
“He told Ms Dunphy that she could refer individuals seeking pardons to him, so long as they did not go through “the normal channels” of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, because correspondence going to that office would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act,” the suit added.
In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for Giuliani said that he “unequivocally denies the allegations raised by Ms Dunphy” and his “lifetime of public service speaks for itself.”
Giuliani, the spokesperson added, “will pursue all available remedies and counterclaims.” As The Independent points out, there’s no evidence that Trump or Giuliani ever profited from pardons handed out by the Trump administration.
Dunphy said she began working for Giuliani in 2019 as his director of business development. She accuses him of making “sexual demands” and going on “alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist, and antisemitic remarks,” which she says she recorded. Her suit says Giuliani “began abusing” her “almost immediately after she started working for” him.
“He made clear that satisfying his sexual demands-which came virtually anytime, anywhere-was an absolute requirement of her employment and of his legal representation,” the suit said.
