Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani plotted to sell presidential pardons for $2 million a piece, former staffer says in lawsuit

• On Monday, Rudy Giuliani was hit with a bombshell rape civil lawsuit filed by a former staffer.
• The staffer alleged in the suit that Giuliani asked if she knew anyone who wanted to buy a presidential pardon.

A new rape civil lawsuit filed against Donald Trump's former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says the pair devised a scheme to make presidential pardons available for purchase for $2 million each.

In addition to claims that Giuliani raped her repeatedly while she worked for him, Noelle Dunphy, who served as his law firm's director of business operations, alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday that Giuliani asked: "if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split."

The lawsuit continued: "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."

Requests for clemency for federal crimes such as piracy, treason, and counterfeiting are made through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and, as they are subjected to federal oversight, often take years to be granted. As of 2022, the office has a backlog of more than 17,000 pending applications for pardons, Bloomberg reported.

Representatives for Trump and lawyers for Dunphy did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Giuliani, through his spokesman Ted Goodman, "unequivocally" denied the allegations: "Mayor Giuliani's lifetime of public service speaks for itself and he will pursue all available remedies and counterclaims."

Compared to other presidents, Trump flexed his power to pardon people of their crimes very little while he was in office, most often offering clemency and full pardons to his political allies — including Roger Stone, his former strategist Steve Bannon, and his son-in-law's father, Charles Kushner — while hinting that he could pardon himself if he were convicted of a crime while in office.

Compared to former President Barack Obama's more than 1,300 clemency grants, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 240 people while in office.

While it remains unknown whether recipients of the high-profile pardons paid the $2 million alleged in the lawsuit, The New York Times reported only 25 of the 240 pardons and commutations Trump granted during his term came through the regular Justice Department process, instead being routed through a private process developed by the Trump White House.

The Office of the Pardon Attorney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.