Charles Krupa, File/AP Photo
Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H.
- On Tuesday, Politico published a report detailing the background of Rudy Giuliani's new director of communications, 20-year-old Christianné Allen.
- Reporters Daniel Lippman and Tina Nguyen found that Allen is still getting a communications degree online and has inflated much of her resume.
- Giuliani has stuck by Allen even as his actions in Ukraine triggered articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump and he's reportedly under investigation by the FBI.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Rudy Giuliani's new spokesperson s a 20-year-old college student who appears to have made up large chunks of her resume, according to a report by Politico.
Christianné Allen became Giuliani's director of communications in September. And while the president's personal attorney stands by the hire, others in Trumpworld told Politico that Allen has a pattern of lying and has embellished her experience.
Allen's entry into Giuliani's world comes at a perilous time for the former New York City mayor. His activities in Ukraine - trying to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden, pressuring Ukraine's government to interfere in the 2020 election by announcing an investigation into the Bidens, and pursuing his own business interests - have triggered articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. He is also the subject of an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan that could result in criminal charges.
And at this moment in Giuliani's long career, he is being represented to the press with a 20-year-old who seems to have severely misrepresented her experience.
Allen overstated her work experience
The fabrications appear to date back to when Allen first started working for the Trump campaign in 2015, dropping out of high school to do so. A former Trump Virginia campaign official told Politico that she got a position on the campaign because "she went around telling everyone that she was [former Virginia Governor and Senator] George Allen's niece."
"I would introduce her to other people as George Allen's niece, and then I guess she got in front of someone who was actually related to George Allen and she corrected herself then," the former campaign officials said.
Allen told Politico that she never claimed to be related to the Virginia statesman.
"There were a few officials on the campaign who thought we were related based on our last name," she said. "I was asked one time in a public setting if I was related to him and I laughed and said no."
Much of Allen's resume also seems to be overstated. Here are a few other inconsistencies that reporters Daniel Lippman and Tina Nguyen found when digging into the positions she listed in her work history:
- Representative for the Trump Victory Finance Committee: A person familiar with the matter said that anyone can sign up online to be a volunteer fundraiser for the committee. Allen said she had raised almost $30,000, which isn't enough to be considered at the "member" level.
- Video columnist for the Daily Caller: She's only recorded two videos for the website. Both were unpaid.
- Spokeswoman for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign: Trump campaign officials said she was not a spokesperson. Allen herself said she only said she was a spokesperson "because I spoke at a couple rallies".
- Executive director of the Middle Eastern Women's Coalition: The Middle Eastern Women's Coalition was launched earlier this year by Trump supporter Rabia Kazan. But the chairman of the group, journalist Arwa Sawan, said that it never really got off the ground and "there [were] no activities for that organization."
A former Trump official said that Allen was constantly attaching herself to multiple groups.
"I forget all the titles she told me she had. She was 'millenials for something' or 'teens for this,'" the former official said. "I think she made it to a point where she made [volunteering] untenable. She wasn't productive, but she was attempting to insert herself into everything. If there's an event, she's showing up to help whether or not she was invited to [it]."
After dropping out of high school to work on the Trump campaign, she started taking courses online through Liberty University to get her diploma and start taking college courses. She's still taking online courses to complete an undergraduate degree in communications.
Not counting an internship with a Long Island lawyer, Allen doesn't seem to have much of a work history. Her position in conservative political groups seems to have been mostly social until recently.
Her Instagram account, which has nearly 18,000 followers, shows her at Fox News' headquarters, hobnobbing at the Trump Hotel in DC, and taking photos with political figures.
Giuliani's friends aren't confident she's the right person for the job
Politico reports that Allen appears to have started getting close to Giuliani in July, according to videos showing them hanging out on a boat and at a DC restaurant.
Allen said she was introduced to Giuliani by a woman, but would not go into more detail. Neither her father or Giuliani's friends know how the two met.
"Nobody can figure out who the eff she is or how she got in there," one of Giuliani's friends told Politico.
She said she began interviewing for the job in September and went through several rounds of interviews.
She said Giuliani expressed "that I had the necessary skills and leadership to fill the position."
When Giuliani was asked about Allen's hire, he defended the decision.
"[Allen]has already established a very strong and exceptional record as a very talented strategist, spokesperson, technology consultant and person of very mature judgment," he told Politico. "She just finished a very grueling assignment in three different countries in four days. This assignment was accomplished flawlessly and is well beyond the abilities of your anonymous and otherwise unquestionably jealous sources."
Read the full story at Politico»
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- Greta Thunberg, Megan Rapinoe, and Rudy Giuliani made Time's Person of the Year shortlist for 2019
- Barr warned Trump for months that Rudy Giuliani was becoming a liability, but the president ignored him because he loves Giuliani's fiery media appearances
- 'This a trap that Giuliani and Trump literally walked into': Russia may know more about the Ukraine scandal than we do
- House investigators are trying to find out who a mysterious '-1' number Giuliani frequently spoke with during Ukraine pressure campaign belongs to
Here they are enjoying a nice dinner at Anthony Scaramucci's "Hunt & Fish Club" in NYC pic.twitter.com/kZnilWRZ4R
- Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 9, 2019