Former White House aide claims Giuliani groped her on Jan. 6, according to book

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, alleges in her new memoir 'Enough' that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage during Donald Trump's speech at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, according to Rolling Stone and CNN. Hutchinson writes that Giuliani's hand went under her blazer and skirt, with his fingers moving up her thigh.

Hutchinson, whose public testimony to the House committee investigating January 6 was widely covered the previous year, describes encountering Giuliani in a tent with others including attorney John Eastman. She writes that he approached 'like a wolf closing in on its prey,' according to Rolling Stone's excerpting of the book, and quotes him saying, '"We have the evidence. It's all here. We're going to pull this off,"' before commenting on her clothing: '"By the way," he says, fingering the fabric, "I'm loving this leather jacket on you."'

Giuliani denied the allegation in two separate statements captured across the coverage reviewed. Through political adviser Ted Goodman, he called Hutchinson's claim 'this disgusting lie,' suggested it was tied to marketing for her book, and said he 'will pursue all appropriate legal action,' per Rolling Stone and CNN. Giuliani separately told NY1 the accusation was 'absolutely false' and 'totally absurd,' asking why he would grope someone 'with a hundred people' present. John Eastman's attorney, Charles Burnham, also weighed in, calling Hutchinson's accusations 'libelous.'

The book and its publisher

'Enough,' published by Simon & Schuster, was released Tuesday, September 26, 2023, according to NY1's reporting. The book is described in that coverage as an account of Hutchinson's experiences as a young White House aide during a national crisis and her later effort to tell the truth about powerful Washington figures.

Part of a broader pattern of allegations

Rolling Stone's report noted that this was the second sexual harassment accusation against Giuliani to surface in 2023, following a lawsuit filed in May by former employee Noelle Dunphy that made separate allegations. NY1's coverage also cited other legal matters involving Giuliani around the same period, including 13 racketeering and conspiracy charges he faced in Georgia, a defamation judgment finding him liable for statements about two Georgia election workers, a separate suit from a woman alleging coercion and wage theft, a former lawyer seeking $1.36 million in unpaid legal fees, a recommendation that he be disbarred in Washington, D.C., and the 2021 suspension of his law license in New York.

Hutchinson's broader role

Hutchinson had already become a central figure in the public record of January 6 through her televised testimony to the House select committee in June 2022, when, per NY1's recap, she alleged that Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of his limousine and lunged at a Secret Service agent, that Trump said Vice President Mike Pence 'deserves it' in response to 'hang Mike Pence' chants from the crowd, and that Meadows indicated Trump did not want to stop the Capitol violence as it unfolded. 'Enough' extends that account into her time in the Trump White House and the period afterward, according to the coverage reviewed, though the full scope of the book's other claims was not detailed in the sourcing used for this account.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Rolling Stone, CNN and NY1. It restores a story originally published on this site in September 2023; figures are as reported at the time.