Former White House aide says Giuliani groped her on Jan. 6

By Eric Bradner | CNN

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide, claims in a new book that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage at the rally that preceded the former president’s supporters’ insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The 27-year-old Hutchinson, whose bombshell testimony provided a key moment in last year’s public hearings of the House select committee that investigated the events of January 6, details her time in former President Donald Trump’s administration and afterward in a book titled “Enough” set to publish next week.

Quotes from the book, first reported by The Guardian, were confirmed by CNN. Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, writes that Giuliani put his hands “under my blazer, then my skirt,” at the January 6 rally.

Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman in a statement called Hutchinson’s claims a “disgusting lie.”

“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,” Goodman said. “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.”

Publisher Simon & Schuster said in a statement, “We stand behind our author and her book.”

Backstage on Jan. 6

Hutchinson writes that the encounter with Giuliani was observed by others including John Eastman, a conservative attorney who, like Giuliani, advanced false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

The encounter began, she writes, with Giuliani claiming to possess evidence of voter fraud.

“The corners of his mouth split into a Cheshire cat smile. Waving a stack of documents, he moves towards me, like a wolf closing in on its prey,” Hutchinson writes.

“‘We have the evidence. It’s all here. We’re going to pull this off.’ Rudy wraps one arm around my body, closing the space that was separating us. I feel his stack of documents press into the small of my back. I lower my eyes and watch his free hand reach for the hem of my blazer,” Hutchinson writes.

“‘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.”

“I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh,” she writes. “He tilts his chin up. The whites of his eyes look jaundiced. My eyes dart to John Eastman, who flashes a leering grin.”

“I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy’s grip … filled with rage, I storm through the tent, on yet another quest for Mark,” she writes, a reference to her then-boss Meadows.

Charles Burnham, a lawyer for Eastman, categorically denied Hutchinson’s account and in a statement to CNN called the accusations “libelous.”

Burnham’s statement said that Eastman “does not recall ever having met Ms. Hutchinson, and did not even know who she was until her public testimony before the Select Committee in the House of Representatives in June 2022.”

Giuliani’s legal issues

Hutchinson’s claims come as Giuliani faces a series of legal issues, including millions of dollars in mounting legal bills. The former New York City mayor is one of 18 co-defendants who were indicted alongside Trump in August by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for their alleged role in attempting to interfere with the 2020 election results in Georgia. Giuliani had to post bond as he awaits trial – another costly venture.

A law firm that represented Giuliani in recent years, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, is also suing him, claiming Giuliani had paid only $214,000 of his total legal bill, leaving him owing the firm more than $1.3 million.

Giuliani has also been found liable for defaming two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused by Giuliani of committing voter fraud in 2020.