Rudy Giuliani and his rape accuser Noelle Dunphy. (Photos l-r: zz/NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx 2022 2/2/22; Screenshot from Inside Edition)
Rudy Giuliani plans to dispute rape and sexual harassment claims lodged against him in a lawsuit filed by a former employee by attacking his accuser’s credibility, Law&Crime has learned. An attorney for Giuliani’s accuser has rubbished the notion.
In May 2023, the former New York City mayor was sued in Manhattan Supreme Court, along with his eponymous businesses, by Noelle Dunphy, who says she worked for him between 2019 and 2021.
“Giuliani began abusing Ms. Dunphy almost immediately after she started working,” the 70-page complaint reads. “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.”
The case against Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime friend has been scandalous from the beginning. The initial complaint also alleges Giuliani “took Viagra constantly,” frequently made “sexist, racist, and antisemitic remarks,” as well as comments on Dunphy’s appearance and intellect.
Content warning: sexual assault.
The filing also contains a graphic rape allegation.
“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.”
In an updated complaint, Dunphy cataloged a series of offensive statements Giuliani allegedly made about Arabs and Jews. That filing also contained several lewd comments about Dunphy — including commentary on her breast size, the age gap between the two, and more.
Dunphy has said that she was Giuliani’s off-the-books director of business development — while Giuliani has denied that she was an employee. He also said the two were in a consensual relationship.
Representatives for Giuliani now appear primed to wage a defensive effort that would cast Dunphy as a serial fabricator.
“Ms. Dunphy has a documented history of making harassment claims against men for the purpose of making money, which has been reported in-part by the New York Post,” Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, told Law&Crime. “Ms. Dunphy’s history of this sort of behavior is well documented and available through public records.”
The New York Post coverage referred to by Giuliani’s spokesperson, however, does not mention Dunphy by name.
That article refers to a legal battle between an unnamed woman who accused her much older ex-boyfriend of viciously sexually assaulting and tormenting her in a lawsuit — and a counter-lawsuit in which the woman’s ex-boyfriend claims she has previously engineered “schemes to defraud high net-worth men.”
“The assertions by Mr. Giuliani and his representatives sound like more like wishful thinking than sober analysis,” Dunphy’s attorney, Justin T. Kelton, told Law&Crime. “Unlike Mr. Giuliani, no court has ever found that Ms. Dunphy made any misrepresentation. Furthermore, Ms. Dunphy has already come forward with substantial evidence in support of her allegations, and her sworn complaint speaks volumes. Mr. Giuliani’s attacks on Ms. Dunphy are both inappropriate and extremely ironic coming from someone with his track record.”
The latest filing in the case occurred in early January. That’s when Dunphy’s lawsuit was stayed pending the resolution of Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of New York.
Dunphy’s lawsuit alleges 22 causes of action against Giuliani, including battery claims under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. Her lawsuit seeks $10 plus unspecified punitive damages.
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