Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has alleged in her forthcoming book that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage at the 45th president’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021.
Hutchinson, whose tome “Enough” is due out next week, recalled the encounter with the former mayor and Trump attorney shortly before then then-president’s supporters ransacked the Capitol and delayed the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
“‘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,” Hutchinson writes, according to the Guardian.
“I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh,” she continues. “He tilts his chin up. The whites of his eyes look jaundiced. My eyes dart to [Trump adviser] John Eastman, who flashes a leering grin.”
Hutchinson described Giuliani as acting “like a wolf closing in on its prey.”
“I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy’s grip,” she further describes, “filled with rage, I storm through the tent, on yet another quest for Mark.”
At the time of the alleged assault, Hutchinson was working as then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ assistant.
She was catapulted into the national spotlight during her bombshell live testimony on June 28, 2022, before the House Jan. 6 select committee, during which she claimed to have heard that Trump had attempted to drive himself to the Capitol to join his supporters.
The former president has denied the claim and the Secret Service has not corroborated Hutchinson’s account.
Initially, Hutchinson claimed that she didn’t remember much of the internal deliberations in the Trump White House revolving around challenging the 2020 election outcome. However, she later reversed her course and claimed her initial statements were made on the advice of a Trump-linked lawyer she had hired for financial reasons.
It is not immediately clear why Hutchinson did not divulge the Giuliani incident in her public testimony.
“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,” Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman said in a statement. “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.”
Giuliani, 79, has contended with mounting legal woes since Trump departed the White House.
“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,” Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman said in a statement. “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.”
Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty to 13 counts in connection with the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 result in Georgia. Days earlier, a judge sanctioned Giuliani in a civil case brought by two Georgia election workers whom he accused of rigging the 2020 Peach State vote.
He is also facing a $1.3 million lawsuit from his former attorney Robert Costello, who claims the former mayor hasn’t paid his bills — something Giuliani has disputed.
Additionally, Giuliani was hit in May with a $10 million suit from a former assistant who alleged sexual assault and failure to pay more than $2 million in wages.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts