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Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani caught in compromising position with young actress in Borat film 'gotcha'

Mr Giuliani was invited to a hotel in Manhattan in July to be interviewed by an actress pretending to be a Russian journalist - Amazon video
Mr Giuliani was invited to a hotel in Manhattan in July to be interviewed by an actress pretending to be a Russian journalist - Amazon video

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor, has been caught in a compromising situation with a young actress while unsuspectingly being filmed for the latest Borat film.

Mr Giuliani was invited to a hotel in Manhattan in July by a member of comedian and director Sacha Baron Cohen’s team posing as a Russian reporter who said she wanted to talk about the president’s coronavirus handling.

The journalist, played by Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, 24, starts off by discussing the virus and where it might have started with Mr Giuliani, 76.

“Not with a bat,” Mr Giuliani says. “Have you ever eaten a bat?” he asks the reporter, who gets him to agree to try one.

She tells him she is nervous, to which he replies: “I’ll relax you, you want me to ask you a question?”

After they stop filming, she then invites the two-term mayor into the bedroom next door for a drink.

Watch: Rudy Giuliani calls ‘Borat 2’ scene a ‘hit job’

Baron-Cohen and Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova (24) in a scene from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Amazon Studios
Baron-Cohen and Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova (24) in a scene from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Amazon Studios

The actress then sits him on the bed and unbuckles his trousers in order to remove his microphone. Mr Giuliani then reaches his hands down his pants to tuck in his shirt.

At which point, Mr Cohen, dressed improbably in a wig and women’s underwear, bursts into the room and tells Mr Giuliani “she’s too old for you, she’s 15!” In other parts of the film, Ms Bakalova plays Borat's 15-year-old daughter Tutar, though there is no suggestion Mr Giuliani thinks she is underage.

The attorney then calls the police, a detail that was reported back in July.

“I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen,” Mr Giuliani told reporters. "I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

Actor Sacha Baron Cohen arrives for premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" - Reuters
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen arrives for premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" - Reuters

The police found no crime had been committed.

Mr Cohen, the British actor and filmmaker who is known for his gonzo-style political satires and “gotcha” journalism, has focused his attention this time around on the US ahead of the November election.

In the film 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm', which is due for release on Friday, Mr Cohen returns as popular character Borat, a Kazakh journalist who is sent to America to curry the favour of strongman president “McDonald Trump” by presenting a gift to his “vice premier,” “Mikhael” Pence.

Donald Trump with then mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2015 - New York Daily News 
Donald Trump with then mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2015 - New York Daily News

Mr Giuliani has become a key figure in Mr Trump’s campaign, as he was in 2016 in the run-up to his election.

He obtained a laptop hard drive purportedly belonging to Democrat nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter reportedly left at a repair shop in Delaware.

Mr Giuliani responded on Wednesday, saying he was only tucking in his shirt in the scene showing him lying on the bed. He called the episode a "hit job", retribution for the work he has been doing on behalf of his client, Mr Trump.

“They’ll do anything. They’ve attacked me over everything possible, investigated every business dealing I’ve ever had,” he told WABC radio. “And now the idiot Borat is going after me with a totally sensationalised false account of a ridiculous movie I guess that he’s done.”

Watch: Trump and Biden’s separate town halls