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- An associate of Rudy Giuliani told a former CIA agent seeking a pardon that it would cost $ 2 million, The New York Times reported.
- Giuliani took issue with the former CIA officer’s account, telling The Times that he doesn’t remember the meeting and that helping someone get a pardon would be a conflict of interest.
- The Times reported that several people with ties to Trump have accepted large sums of money from people asking for pardons.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
An aide to Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney for President Donald Trump, told a former CIA officer seeking a presidential pardon that it “would cost $ 2 million,” The New York Times reported on Sunday.
The revelation came as part of a large Times report that describes how several people close to the president raised large sums of money in return for helping people ask for forgiveness.
John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2012 for disclosing the identity of another officer involved in waterboarding. Kiriakou told The Times he had asked for forgiveness from others with ties to the president – for carrying a handgun and accessing his pension – but the topic was brought up in a meeting without relationship with Giuliani and his associates at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC.
When Giuliani went to the bathroom during the meeting, one of his associates said Giuliani could help, but “it’s going to cost $ 2 million – he’s going to want $ 2 million,” Kiriakou told The Times.
Kiriakou did not accept the offer, according to the Times.
“I laughed. Two million dollars – are you crazy?” Kiriakou said on the way out. “Even if I had two million dollars, I wouldn’t spend it to collect a $ 700,000 pension.”
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A friend of Kiriakou reported the meeting to the FBI, concerned that Giuliani might sell presidential pardons, The Times reported. But Giuliani took issue with The Times reports, telling the outlet that he did not remember the meeting and that working on leniency cases while working as the president’s lawyer would constitute a conflict of interest.
The Times reported that several people with ties to Trump, including his former lawyer John Dowd and former campaign adviser Karen Giorno, had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in payments from people asking for pardons.
Presidents regularly embark on a forgiveness frenzy as they prepare to step down, but Trump, rarely a man to follow the standards, has caught fire for using pardons primarily to reward his allies, fellow Republican politicians and people close to his family.
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Trump has pardoned several people indicted in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. They include his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who has been recognized. guilty of tax and bank fraud and was serving a prison sentence of 7.5 years.
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate who was convicted of obstructing justice, tampering with witnesses and lying to investigators in connection with the special advocate’s investigation, also received a pardon. Trump also pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who pleaded guilty to witness tampering and tax evasion charges, and served two years in prison.
Trump is also said to have floated away pardoning his family members, Giuliani, and himself.
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