Rudy vs. Noelle: Watch Out! This Dog Has Fleas.

I spent part of yesterday morning reading the lawsuit filed by Noelle Dunphy against Rudy Giuliani (thank you Paula) claiming sexual abuse and non-payment of wages when she worked for him from 2019 to 2021. You can download and read the lawsuit here, or you can take my word that it contains lots of juicy stories about Rudy who, like his former client, a former President of the United States, may soon have to decide whether he wants to testify about his alleged sexual behavior in open court.

But even if Rudy decides to follow Trump’s example and stay mum, the attorneys representing Ms. Dunphy may be able to conduct something like an examination of him anyway. This is because as Lawrence O’Donnell said in a Huffington Post story, the lawsuit contains four words that no defendant in a legal action ever wants to hear: “This conversation was recorded.”

Here’s the key sentence which if even only partially true, will probably wind up with a jury doing to Rudy what another jury did to Trump: “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. Many of these comments were recorded.”

Here’s a typical excerpt from the lawsuit which I can only hope was recorded and would obviously be played in the trial: “Throughout the employment and attorney-client relationship, Giuliani forced Ms. Dunphy to perform oral sex on him. He often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump. Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that he enjoyed engaging in this conduct while on the telephone because it made him ‘feel like Bill Clinton.’”

Now here’s a real doozy from the lawsuit: “On February 7, 2019, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy to take a note to remind him to pay taxes on a private jet ride he was gifted by a friend. The same day, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy, in her capacity as his employee, about a plan that had been prepared for if Trump lost the 2020 election. Specifically, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that Trump’s team would claim that there was “voter fraud” and that Trump had actually won the election.”

I would give anything if Dunphy recorded this comment and if so, that it could circulate on media and political websites before the 2024 election. Perfect, just perfect, okay?

And here’s another gem, maybe even better than the one above: Rudy also asked Ms. Dunphy if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split. He told Ms. Dunphy that she could refer individuals seeking pardons to him, so long as they did not go through “the normal channels” of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, because correspondence going to that office would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

These politically-explosive statements and others have been run up and down the flagpole on Newsweek, Huffington, Forbes, and just about everywhere else

Finally, here’s one more priceless example of how Giuliani thinks: “Jews want to go through their freaking Passover all the time, man oh man. Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago. The red sea parted, big deal. It’s not the first time that happened.”

I can just imagine how that comment will play to a jury in New York.

I’m not an attorney so what I now say needs to be taken with more than a few grains of salt. According to this lawsuit, Rudy started getting it on sexually with Dunphy less than one after she first reported for work. She claims that his behavior was offensive and assaultive, but she didn’t quit.

In fact, Dunphy continued to put up with verbal and physical sexual assaults on an almost daily basis for two years and was terminated without ever getting paid.

If what she alleges about Rudy’s behavior turns out to be true, how come this experienced and successful business professional continued to hang around? The lawsuit refers to her ‘professional successes’ since starting her own consulting firm in 2001. If she’s been so successful, how come she put up with Giuliani’s shit on an endless and daily basis for more than two years?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to find some way to excuse Rudy and hang Noelle Dunphy out to dry. I just happen to know any number of professional women who at the first hint of such behavior on the part of a supervisor, would close down their computer and exit through the office door.

If Noelle Dunphy had all the PR experience she claims to have had before Rudy contacted her and made his pitch, she had to have known that she would be dealing with a guy who’s business and personal reputations were already in shreds.

Want to lie down with the dogs? You’ll catch fleas.