Rudy Giuliani speaks to the press about various lawsuits related to the 2020 election inside the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Nov. 19, 2020. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.)
Rudy Giuliani has been hit with salacious sexual battery claims by an ex-employee under the same law that produced a $5 million verdict against former President Donald Trump.
The former New York City mayor’s accuser, Noelle Dunphy, sued Giuliani and his business in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. She claims that what seemed like a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” role as Giuliani’s director of business development at $1 million per year quickly took a sordid turn.
“Giuliani began abusing Ms. Dunphy almost immediately after she started working for the Defendants,” her 70-page complaint states. “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. Giuliani began requiring Ms. Dunphy to work at his home and out of hotel rooms, so that she would be at his beck and call. He drank morning, noon, and night, and was frequently intoxicated, and therefore his behavior was always unpredictable.”
“Giuliani also took Viagra constantly,” the complaint continues. “While working with Ms. Dunphy, Giuliani would look to Ms. Dunphy, point to his erect penis, and tell her that he could not do any work until ‘you take care of this.'”
Dunphy claims to have copious evidence backing up her account, in the form of text messages and consensually recorded conversations. Her complaint screenshots several of these alleged text exchanges.
This text message exchange appears the sex-abuse complaint against Rudy Giuliani.
“I’m dreaming about you,” Giuliani says in one, according to the complaint.
Dunphy claims that she has a recording of Giuliani promising to give her $300,000 if she would “forgo her legal rights in connection with her pending case and ‘fuck me like crazy.'”
In another recorded chat from Feb. 23, 2019, Giuliani allegedly told Dunphy that he could “get in trouble with underage girls” if they were 16 but looked 20, according to the complaint.
Those are far from the only damaging statements Dunphy claims to have of the former mayor on tape.
“In addition to his sexual demands, Giuliani went on alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist, and antisemitic remarks, which made the work environment unbearable,” her complaint states. “Many of these comments were recorded.”
In 2020, Giuliani was caught with his pants loosened, if not down, by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who has a knack for catching political figures in compromising situations. In one of his “Borat” movies, a character playing the title character’s daughter took Giuliani to a hotel suite rigged with hidden cameras. In that footage, Giuliani can be seen lying on the bed and reaching into the crotch of his pants. Borat then barges in and tells Giuliani: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”
Giuliani, who claimed he had been trying to take off his electronic equipment, is seen in the screenshot leading up to that moment in the complaint.
The Borat scene in question. (Screenshot via Dunphy v. Giuliani)
Dunphy claims that Giuliani’s posture at that moment was a familiar image, but unlike Borat, her interaction with Giuliani didn’t end with an interruption.
“Giuliani then pulled her head onto his penis, without asking for or obtaining any form of consent,” Dunphy complaint states. “He held her by her hair. It became clear to Ms. Dunphy that there was no way out of giving him oral sex. She did so, against her will.”
Dunphy’s lawsuit alleges 22 causes of action against Giuliani, including battery claims under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. That’s the law that suspended the statute of limitations on civil claims for sexual assault, which E. Jean Carroll cited to bring her successful claims against Trump.
Though her case was only ever civil, Carroll had accused Trump of having committed six crimes against her. Dunphy makes the same allegation against Giuliani, accusing him of rape first degree, rape in the third degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, sexual abuse in the third degree, sexual misconduct, and forcible touching.
Dunphy demands at least twice as much as a jury awarded Carroll: $10 million, plus unspecified punitive damages.
Giuliani didn’t immediately respond to a text message requesting comment.
Read the complaint here.
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