More Perverts

 

People, I've been reading the Complaint in the $10-million suit filed in Manhattan court yesterday against Rudolph Giuliani by Noelle Dunphy, who worked as his Director of Business Development from January 2019 to January 2021, at a salary of $1 million a year plus expenses, which he never paid her, because this was during the protracted process of his third divorce, and

he told Ms. Dunphy that her pay would have to be deferred and her employment kept “secret” until the divorce proceedings finished. He claimed that his “crazy” exwife and her lawyers were watching his cashflow, and that his ex-wife would “attack” and “retaliate” against any female employee that Giuliani hired. Giuliani promised Ms. Dunphy that his divorce would be resolved “any day now,” and therefore the deferral of her pay and the need to keep her employment secret would soon end.

And that's not all, as you've probably heard by now; he started sexually harassing her from the first day—

As he was preparing to leave, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that since they would be working from different locations that week, he would like it if Ms. Dunphy sent him some flirtatious photos.

and in the first week, in New York on a business trip, insisted that she stay at his apartment (he has a guest suite), got her drunk, and forced her to give him oral sex, before taking her out to dinner with Lev Parnas (remember him? this is all happening as we're building up to the Ukraine scandal and the first Trump impeachment, and Lev is around a lot). Before you knew it, this had become a major part of her job:

He made clear that satisfying his sexual demands—which came virtually anytime, anywhere—was an absolute requirement of her employment and of his legal representation. Giuliani began requiring Ms. Dunphy to work at his home and out of hotel rooms, so that she would be at his beck and call. He drank morning, noon, and night, and was frequently intoxicated, and therefore his behavior was always unpredictable.

Giuliani also took Viagra constantly. While working with Ms. Dunphy, Giuliani would look to Ms. Dunphy, point to his erect penis, and tell her that he could not do any work until “you take care of this.” Thus, Ms. Dunphy worked under the constant threat that Giuliani might demand sex from her at any moment. Even when the Covid-19 pandemic halted Giuliani’s ability to physically assault her, he demanded that she disrobe during their work-related videoconferences. 

The whole thing is so grotesque you want to laugh, even as you recognize how horrible it is. Dunphy was extremely vulnerable, coming off a long abusive relationship—in fact she was trying to take legal action against the ex, in which Giuliani had promised to represent her, though he never did anything on that either, and the hope of having such a famous and powerful lawyer on her case was one of the things that kept her from trying to escape, though her financial dependence on him—he wouldn't pay her salary but he'd slip her four or five thousand dollars in cash from time to time, or let her use his credit card at Neiman Marcus—was obviously a factor. In fact, though the work she was officially performing was excellent

She generated substantial business opportunities, was available around the clock, helped Giuliani maintain his public image, and diligently ensured that his day-to-day business needs were met. 

she was literally a sex slave, until, believe it or not, the January 6 insurrection frightened her out of the situation:

Ms. Dunphy contacted Giuliani, stating “I feel scared of you, and I don’t want you trying to hurt me…. Now the country has just gone through chaos, and I pray I never see something like that again.” 

On January 31, 2021, Ms. Dunphy’s employment with the Giuliani Defendants was terminated as informally as it began, in retaliation for her having found the courage to express her fear of him. Giuliani sent Ms. Dunphy a text message stating, “It was a useless call if you write me things like you’re afraid of me and you won’t sue me. There is simply no reason for you to do either and it’s best if we not communicate. You have nothing to be afraid of and nothing to sue me for. I have no desire to be in communication with someone who thinks that.

Meanwhile, though, she'd been recording conversations and saving text messages, and there's going to be some astonishing audio evidence at this trial, in the unlikely event there is one, though sadly no tape of him telling her he's selling presidential pardons at two million dollars a pop, the proceeds to be split between him and Trump. 

Also, it would be nice for the FBI to have a look at her computer, with

emails from, to, or concerning President Trump, the Trump family (including emails from Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump), Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former FBI director Louis Freeh, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, Secretaries of State, former aides to President Trump such as Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, and Kellyanne Conway, former Attorneys General Michael Mukasey and Jeff Sessions, media figures such as Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson, and other notable figures including Newt Gingrich, presidential candidates for Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the Ailes family, the LeFrak family, Bernard Kerik, Igor Fruman, Lev Parnas, and attorneys Marc Mukasey, Robert Costello, Victoria Toensing, Fred Fielding, and Joe DeGenova 

Anyway, all this is going to become familiar, but there's one thing I especially wanted to point out, in regard to Giuliani's abusive behavior, as he

continually pressured her into sex, was unconcerned with obtaining Ms. Dunphy’s consent, disregarded Ms. Dunphy’s boundaries as a survivor of domestic violence and behaved in a hyperaggressive manner during sexual interactions. Giuliani disregarded Ms. Dunphy’s request that his conduct stop and her pleas that physical violence, domineering behavior, and abusive language was triggering and re-traumatizing for her. For example, during sex, he called her a “cunt,” a “bitch,” and “Rudy’s slut,” and discussed his interest in “BDSM” (which refers to bondage, dominance, sadism, and masochism) with her..... On March 3, 2019, Giuliani explained that he fantasized about Wendy Rhoades in the popular television show Billions, stating “she wears all that black shit, she’s got a whip, and an electric prod.” Ms. Dunphy made it clear that she was not interested, and immediately changed the subject, commenting on the mosquitoes outside. These statements were recorded.

(That last bit means, of course, that Lordy, there is tape.)

A footnote adds some detail on the TV reference:

Giuliani often discussed this while comparing himself to Chuck Rhoades, the fictional U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on the Showtime series Billions, who enjoyed such conduct. Giuliani bragged that the character Chuck Rhoades—a deeply flawed character who wildly abuses his power—was inspired by him.

This is a great and maybe clarifying example of what I had in mind with my post on Republican perverts last month and the idea of "a subcommunity of party elites that is addicted to transgressiveness itself, to doing things they themselves understand as wickedness, to being evil because they think it's evil, because that's what gets them off", to which some of you took exception: Rudolph's pleasure in identifying with the bad guy, which in a way is only cosplay, not that he thinks he's in the grip of evil, but that he's mastering it—not that he thinks he's a "bad person" (though he is, because he's ignoring the suffering he's causing this wounded soul, which is what makes it infuriating for me), but that he thinks he's badass.

But complicated by the fact that he really is that person, the violent and abusive US attorney, a public hero and private villain (the relationship between Giuliani and Trump goes back to the time in 1989 when Giuliani's top investigator, Tony Lombardi, decided not to proceed with a case of top Mafia guys laundering money by buying Trump Tower apartments and Trump responded by backing Giuliani's mayoral campaign). He gets off on that, too, the way Trump gets off on avoiding taxes ("It proves I'm smart"), impressing his bent friends, from Bernard Kerik to Lev 'n' Igor. But nothing gets him off like brutalizing a pretty woman.