Who is Noelle Dunphy? Ex-employee of Rudy Giuliani calls him 'sexist sexual predator' in $3.1M lawsuit
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A former employee of Rudy Giuliani has claimed that the American politician sexually harassed her and demanded sexual favors while she endured toxic work conditions at his company in a $3.1 million lawsuit filed on Wednesday, January 4. Noelle Dunphy, a New York native, began working for Giuliani in 2019 before he fired her nearly three years later and threatened her to keep quiet about the matter by boasting about his ties with former President Donald Trump.
The woman also alleged that the two were romantically involved prior to the sexual harassment that began after he started abusing alcohol. "Rudolph W Giuliani, the former US Attorney, once hailed as 'America's Mayor,' is a sexist sexual predator and abuser," claimed Dunphy in her suit filed in New York Supreme Court. She also claimed that he made frequent racist and anti-semitic remarks when inebriated. Guiliani's "abuse of drugs" was allegedly fueled by his divorce and increasing political and legal controversies.
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Who is Noelle Dunphy?
According to her website, Dunphy is a writer and business development consultant. She used to work for an ABC News station in Rhode Island before diverting to her own platform ‘Great Interviews’, where she spoke with “business leaders and politicians” including Giuliani. In 2017, Dunphy also started a Florida nonprofit with Joshua Macias, a Trump supporter who was arrested for bringing guns near the Philadelphia Convention Center during the 2020 vote count. The nonprofit, called the Time Foundation, is reportedly no longer active. She has also posted several photos of herself with Giuliani, where the pair can be seen smiling at a golf course. Apparently, Dunphy was hired for "business development work and other work" by Giuliani and his companies in January 2019.
"It began with Rudy as my boss and lawyer and later turned romantic," Dunphy told the Daily Beast. Giuliani allegedly offered to help her "achieve justice" with his legal advice over the abuse she suffered earlier in her life. However, instead of legal advice Giuliani would get "frequently intoxicated while discussing matters of law, and he leveraged his counsel to pressure her for sexual quid-pro-quos during lawyer-client consultations," the lawsuit claimed. "As a result of Giuliani's legal malpractice, [Dunphy] was re-victimized, retraumatized, left without legal redress, and substantially worse off than before Giuliani agreed to represent her in hopes of securing justice against an abuse. Instead, Giuliani leveraged the traumatic details of [Dunphy's] prior victimization to fulfill his morally bankrupt sexual compulsions and fetishes."
On the other hand, Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, said his client has denied the allegations including the one where Dunphy claims to be a former employee, but he refused to comment on whether they had a romantic relationship. ''These are libelous allegations drafted by an individual with no lawyer because no lawyer would associate themselves with this nonsense," the lawyer stated.
Dunphy further alleged that Giuliani created a toxic work environment aggravated by heavy drinking. "Despite attempting to cultivate a public image of himself as 'America's Mayor,' Giuliani frequently made racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ, and misogynistic remarks, often during confused and hostile alcohol-laced tirades, further reinforcing the toxicity of the workplace operating under his direction, adding to the chronic and pervasive violations of applicable New York State and New York City laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace," the lawsuit states.
While stating that Giuliani would start drinking first thing in the morning, Dunphy also told the Daily Beast that he had failed to pay her for the work she had done and also fired her without reason. Apparently, Dunphy agreed to "be an off-the-books, secret employee," but she has hard evidence backing up her claims of non-payment and a toxic work environment.