A woman who said she worked for Rudy Giuliani during the last two years of the Trump administration alleged in a wide-ranging lawsuit that Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, discussed selling presidential pardons and detailed plans to overturn election results. of 2020.
in a 70 page complaint Filed in New York state court on Monday, Noelle Dunphy said that after Giuliani hired her in January 2019, he sexually assaulted and harassed her, refused to pay her wages and often made «sexist, racist, and anti-Semites,» adding that she had recordings of numerous interactions with him.
Dunphy, who is seeking $10 million in punitive and compensatory damages, said Giuliani had hired her for $1 million a year plus expenses and pro bono legal representation for a domestic abuse case against a former partner. But after she was hired, Dunphy alleged, Giuliani kept her employment «secret» and paid her only about $12,000 and reimbursed some of her business expenses, owing her $1,988,000 in unpaid wages. She said that she was fired from her in January 2021.
Giuliani denied the allegations through a spokesman.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani unequivocally denies the allegations raised by Ms. Dunphy,” Ted Goodman said in a written statement. «Mayor Giuliani’s life of public service speaks for itself and he will pursue all available remedies and counterclaims.»
Dunphy alleged in his lawsuit that Giuliani spoke of presidential pardons. He said Giuliani claimed to have «immunity» and told him «that he was selling $2 million in pardons, which he and President Trump would split.» The lawsuit did not suggest that pardons were sold.
Justin Kelton, Dunphy’s attorney, told MSNBC that there is no recording of the clemency conversation. «We hope that it is corroborated in other ways.» He noted that the complaint alleges that another person was present at that conversation, whom Kelton said was Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate, and that Dunphy’s attorneys would like to speak with Parnas about it.
A spokesman for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Hours before leaving office in 2021, Trump pardoned 74 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others.
Giuliani, who has denied allegations that he sought clemency himself, told Dunphy he could refer clemency applicants to him as long as they did not go through «the normal channels» of the Pardon Attorney’s Office because they would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, according to the lawsuit.
Dunphy also alleged that Giuliani gave a look at plans to overturn the election if Trump lost, telling him that «Trump’s team would claim that there was ‘voter fraud’ and that Trump actually won the election,» the lawsuit says.
Giuliani’s New York law license was suspended in June after a state appeals court ruled he made «patently false and misleading» statements about voter fraud in the 2020 election. He tried to defend himself against other claims related to elections conducted by a disciplinary committee of lawyers in Washington, DC, in December, who said he «used his law license as a weapon» in an unsuccessful voter fraud lawsuit in 2020.
Last year, Giuliani’s lawyers were told he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Georgia looking into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. The prosecutor in that case has said that the decisions on the charges will be revealed this summer.
Vaughn Hillyard contributed.