Rudy Giuliani has slammed what he says is the “completely, absolutely false” and “totally absurd” claim that he sexually assaulted Cassidy Hutchinson.
Ms Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and a top witness for the House Select Committee investigating January 6, writes in her new book Enough that Mr Giuliani sexually assaulted her on the day of the insurrection.
An adviser to Mr Giuliani also forcefully rejected the allegations in a statement to The Independent.
The former New York mayor was “like a wolf closing in on its prey”, Ms Hutchinson, 27, writes according to a copy of the book obtained by The Guardian ahead of it being published on Tuesday.
She writes that she encountered Mr Giulaini, 79, backstage at then-President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, down the National Mall not far from the US Capitol, shortly before the attack on the democratic handover of power began.
She writes that Mr Giuliani put his hand “under my blazer, then my skirt”.
“I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh,” she adds. “He tilts his chin up. The whites of his eyes look jaundiced. My eyes dart to John Eastman, who flashes a leering grin.”
Mr Giuliani appeared on Newsmax on Wednesday, rejecting the allegations.
“First of all, I’m not going to grope someone at all,” he said. “And number two – in front of like a hundred people? Plus that day I had extra security, and I had my entire staff around me virtually all day.”
“There would have been no occasion for this to happen, it’s completely absurd,” he added.
Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Mr Giuliani, previously told The Independent in a statement: “It’s fair to ask Cassidy Hutchinson why she is just now coming out with these allegations from two and a half years ago, as part of the marketing campaign for her upcoming book release. This is a disgusting lie against Mayor Rudy Giuliani—a man whose distinguished career in public service includes taking down the Mafia, cleaning up New York City and comforting the nation following September 11th.”
Mr Eastman is a law professor who pushed a much-criticized theory that Mr Trump could legally overturn the 2020 election.
An attorney for Mr Eastman said in a statement to The Independent earlier this week that “Dr. Eastman categorically denies the allegation that he witnessed the conduct Ms. Hutchinson apparently attributes to Mayor Giuliani in her forthcoming book, or that he ‘flash[ed] a leering smile’ at Ms. Hutchinson at that time or at any time”.
Cassidy Hutchinson (left) John Eastman (top right), Donald Trump (center right), Rudy Giuliani (bottom right)— (Reuters / STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Image / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“He does not recall ever having met Ms. Hutchinson, and did not even know who she was until her public testimony before the Select Committee in the House of Representatives in June 2022,” the attorney added. “Dr. Eastman is considering defamation litigation against those responsible for making or publishing these libelous allegations.”
“I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy’s grip … filled with rage, I storm through the tent, on yet another quest for Mark,” Ms Hutchinson writes.
Ms Hutchinson outlines in the book how she started out as a Trump supporter but subsequently only grew more and more disappointed with the president and about how she later became a key witness for the congressional panel looking into the Capitol riot.
Mr Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges related to racketeering and conspiracy in Georgia in connection to the Trump campaign’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
The ex-US Attorney has also been found liable for defamation of two election workers in the state. The bar association in Washington, DC has argued for his disbarment.
Amid a growing mountain of legal fees, Mr Giualini put his Manhattan apartment up for sale. The 79-year-old is also being sued for $1.3m by his own lawyer for unpaid fees and for $10m by a former personal assistant. In that lawsuit, Mr Giualini also faces allegations of sexual assault and harassment, as well as abuse of power and wage theft.
About January 6, 2021, Ms Hutchinson writes that she “experience[d] anger, bewilderment, and a creeping sense of dread that something really horrible [was] going to happen”.
“I find Rudy in the back of the tent with, among others, John Eastman,” she adds. “The corners of his mouth split into a Cheshire cat smile. Waving a stack of documents, he moves towards me, like a wolf closing in on its prey.”
“‘We have the evidence. It’s all here. We’re going to pull this off’,” she quotes Mr Giualini as saying. “Rudy wraps one arm around my body, closing the space that was separating us. I feel his stack of documents press into the small of my back. I lower my eyes and watch his free hand reach for the hem of my blazer.”
“‘By the way,’ he says, fingering the fabric, ‘I’m loving this leather jacket on you.’ His hand slips under my blazer, then my skirt,” she writes.
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin backed up Ms Hutchinson, telling CNN that Mr Giuliani was known to be a “liability” and that it was an open secret that he was a “wild card” who would appear at the White House drunk and women were told to keep their distance.
Ms Griffin added that Ms Hutchinson had previously told her that Mr Giuliani had been “getting handsy” on the day of the Capitol riot, adding that she “unequivocally” believed her.
“It was a known fact within the Trump White House that Rudy Giuliani was a liability,” Ms Griffin told CNN.
“There was often a worry that he would show up at the White House complex perhaps inebriated, to the point that I was actually given a directive from the president to make sure that he wasn’t trying to do stand-ups on television on the White House lawn. Because you weren’t sure what he was going to do, what he was going to say.
“It doesn’t in any way shock me that this happened and no one in the Trump White House hierarchy did anything about this at the time.”
