Washington Fringe Benefits

In this day and age for any Western woman (let alone a Columbia University graduate educated one), to accede to 'sex' demands from an employer seems very unlikely .....

Noelle Dunphy ~ Business Consultant

But for her to be a 'skilled businesswoman,' who has run her own consulting firm, Strategic Consulting, since 2001, to also apparently have no written employment contract for a $1m salary (plus expenses), seems to be down right amazing.

But such is allegedly the case with one Noelle Dunphy, who in a New York court submission has stated that she was repeatedly forced to perform sex acts on a alcoholic and Viagra fuelled employer, who was also a former Mayor of New York and the former lawyer of Donald Trump, to whit, one Rudy Giuliani.

Noelle Dunphy and Rudy Giuliani

She also said that she was promised a $1m pa salary and free legal advice (on a domestic violence case she was fighting), but that crucially, that the salary was to be deferred pending her employers divorce proceedings and her employment kept “secret” until the divorce proceedings finished (his ex-wife Judith Nathan's lawyers would be watching his cash flow).

Her court complaint is very graphic in its descriptions, with oral sex featuring highly in the claims against the now 78 year old Giuliani, and is in support of a $10m (£8m) civil case. It includes claims that as well as coercing her into sex acts, he made her work naked, and launched into "alcohol-drenched" and racist rants at work. She claims that it was made clear to her by him, almost immediately after being hired by Mr Giuliani's law firm in 2019 as his Director of Business Development, that satisfying his sexual demands was an "absolute requirement of her employment".

Ms Dunphy is stated to have made recordings of some of her conversations with Mr Giuliani, which included his sexual comments and demands for sex, as well as the alleged racist, sexist and antisemitic remarks. She also has her phone text history with Mr Giuliani excerpts of which have been published and are very suggestive of Mr Giuliani's one track interests.

Giuliani Text Messages

Giuliani's attorneys deny that Dunphy ever worked for him, and a spokesperson for Mr Giuliani said he "vehemently and completely denies the allegations", describing the claims as "pure harassment and an attempt at extortion". Now as this will either go through the courts, if as Mr Giuliani states, there is no evidence to support the claims, or will be settled out of court if there is. We shall see .....

However, as Ms Dunphy has a personal blog of her own, that appears to have no other content except pictures of her with the 'great and the good' at any 'event' that she could get invited to, going back to 2009, and featuring pictures of Ms Dunphy in quite cosy photo poses with Mr Giuliani at various events, she can probably expect a Giuliani defence of 'consensual lovers', and that she was a publicity hunter attracted to famous men.

However lurid as all this is, it actually reminded me, not so much of Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky (god how she must cringe every time a sex scandal erupts in politics), which infamously included oral sex in the Oval Office (which Ms Dunphy claims that Mr Giuliani liked to have her do to him when on  the telephone to Trump etc, because it made him "feel like Bill Clinton''), but rather to a much much older Washington sex scandal.

Who remembers U.S. Representative Wayne Hays (Democrat-Ohio)? Not many I'll guess. But he had employed Miss Elizabeth Ray (A Miss Virginia 1975), on the payroll of a committee run by him for two years as a clerk-secretary. During that time, she later admitted, her actual job duties were providing Congressman Hays with sexual favour's: "I can't type, I can't file, I can't even answer the phone." .... she said that she came in to the office a few hours per week to have sex with Hays, and received $14,000 a year for the 'administrative duties.'

Ms Ray also admitted having sex with married Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) at his houseboat in August 1972, in exchange for his voting for a bill sponsored by her then boss Representative Kenneth J. Gray (D-Illinois), who had arranged the liaison (Gravel denied it, but decades later admitted it, but said he didn't do it in exchange for his vote .... yeah, right!).

Elizabeth Ray ~ Washington Mistress

In 1976, Ms Ray chose to tell her story to the Washington Post reporter Marion Clark, a chance acquaintance who she had met some years earlier, but whose name she remembered. This after Representative Hays decided to marry Pat Peak, his personal office manager (and 30 years younger than him), after divorcing his first wife of 38 (or 25 ~ reports varied) years, and did not invite her to the wedding reception. 

"I was good enough to be his mistress for two years but not good enough to be invited to his wedding" she later said. 

So Ms Ray arranged for a dinner date with Hay's before his marriage, to be recorded and observed by Washington Post reporters ... Hays was heard telling Ray at one of two dinner dates, that his marriage would not change their relationship "if you behave yourself." Her position on the payroll would also remain secure, he added, but suggested she "start coming in two hours a day," and "That Woodward [Bob Woodward of the Washington Post] is after me, and if he found out about you . . ." (Woodward was after him, but for expenses fraud).

Ms Ray even let a Post reporter listen in as the Ohio congressman repeated on the phone that his recent marriage (to another former secretary) would not affect their arrangement.

"I ought to be good for one week since I'm getting married."
"What about after?" asked Ms Ray.
"If you behave yourself, we'll see," said Hays.
"Well," said Ms Ray, "what about my job?"
"Well, if you come in a little . . ." said Hays.
"Do I still have to sh*g you?" asked Ms Ray.
"Well, that never mattered," said Hays.
"Oh, I thought it did," said Ms Ray.

Ms Ray reportedly had still tried to attend his wedding reception in the House Administration offices as he had invited all his staffer's, barring Ms Ray, but when she showed up anyway, Hays got into a loud argument with her, and summoned the Capitol Police to escort Ms Ray from the building .... oops, big mistake. 

Three days after the Washington Post reported the story and his dinner dates, and published the telephone call transcript, Hays admitted to most of the allegations on the House floor, denying only 'that Miss Ray's federal salary was awarded solely for sexual services'. She was not, insisted Hays, 'hired to be my mistress.'

After the scandal broke, a book appeared in her name, entitled “The Washington Fringe Benefit”; she later posed for Playboy several times, and tried acting and stand-up comedy. Reviewers said that her comedy act was as good as her typing.

Washington Fringe Benefits - Elizabeth Ray

It seems from the latest scandal that the 'Washington Fringe Benefits' Ms Ray described are still alive and kicking .....

NB: Wayne Hays later overdosed on Dalmane (a sleeping tablet), amongst some reports that the new Mrs Hays had left him twice over the Ray affair - she reportedly had reconciled with him before the hospital visit when he recovered from the drug overdose. Hay's marriage apparently survived the scandal, and he returned to farming in Ohio, where he raised cattle and horses (with one brief term as a state house of representative), until his death aged 77.