Cassidy Hutchinson has accused former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of groping her in her new book.
Hutchinson, 27, was a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and gained notoriety as a star witness for the House Select Committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol riot.
She testified on June 28, 2022, that Trump wanted to let armed supporters at his rally on January 6, 2021, and that he also lunged at a Secret Service driver when he refused to allow the then-president to get near the Capitol. Trump described Hutchinson as a low-level staffer and a "total phony."
Hutchinson makes strong allegations about Giuliani, 79, a Trump ally and his former attorney, in her new book Enough, scheduled for a September 26 release.
A spokesperson from the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, told Newsweek: "We stand behind our author and her book."
An excerpt from the book, as reported by The Guardian, details an encounter between the pair backstage during Trump's speech near the White House mere hours before rioters stormed the Capitol.
"I find Rudy in the back of the tent with, among others, [Trump attorney] John Eastman," writes Hutchinson, then 24 years old. "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.
"'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."
She writes that Giuliani then "fingered her fabric" and positively commented on her leather jacket prior to slipping his hand under her blazer and then her skirt.
"I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh," Hutchinson adds. "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 [Meadows]."
Newsweek reached out to Giuliani via his Common Sense podcast for comment.
Trump, Giuliani, Meadows and Eastman are four of the 19 individuals charged in the Fulton County, Georgia, racketeering case surrounding the state's 2020 electoral results and alleged interference purported to help sway the election in Trump's favor.
In a tweet following Hutchinson's January 6 testimony, Giuliani wrote that she "was a reckless liar" and "never present when I asked for a pardon." Giuliani ultimately deleted the tweet one day later due to possible self-incrimination.
Update 09/21/23, 11:19 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Simon & Schuster.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
