Jilted and fired, DHS official accuses ex of defamation

Once a counterterrorism official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Julia Varvaro contends accusations of prostitution by her government contractor ex-lover ended her employment.ALEXANDRIA Va. (CN) — A former Department of Homeland Security official sued a former romantic partner Monday, claiming he launched an anonymous campaign of falsehoods accusing her of sugar daddy prostitution.In a federal lawsuit, Julia Varvaro says Robert Bianchi, CEO for the Maryland-based federal contractor SDVO Solutions, was responsible for a campaign of false statements to defame and vilify her. But she also says Bianchi denied being her sugar daddy in a statement to People magazine: “My relationship with Ms. Varvaro was brief and personal. It was not a ‘sugar’ relationship nor do I allege she bilked me of anything.”In the lawsuit, Varvaro details their courtship — how they cooked meals together and how she would drive through snow-covered roads to spend time with him. “She even brought him to the hospital, and laid out the money for it, when he fell ill during their vacation in Europe,” she says in the lawsuit.As a wealthy and successful man, Bianchi lived a high-flying lifestyle — international travel, fine restaurants, ski trips, designer clothing, according to Varvaro. When the two started dating, she says “he incorporated her into the lifestyle he already led.” He planned the trips, chose the restaurants and bought gifts. Varvaro maintains she never asked him to do any of it, much less make it a condition of the relationship.Varvaro even recalls taking time off work to meet each of Bianchi’s three children. But she says things changed after she turned down his offer of marriage. And after Varvaro was furloughed during a government shutdown, she prepared to take on outside work to cover her expenses. Bianchi offered to help, but only if she accepted his proposal. That ended the relationship, she says in the lawsuit.But she says that didn’t end the problems between the pair. Bianchi filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, she says, claiming Varvaro was a national security risk because she was conducting a sugar daddy-prostitution relationship with him.Varvaro says he made false statements that she “does not have college debt because sugar daddies paid for her college education” and the jewelry that Varvaro owned was “all trophies from her sugar daddies.”While maintaining anonymity, he made the accusations public in an interview with The Daily Mail that ran under the headline “Secret ‘sugar daddy’ sex scandal explodes inside Trump’s counterterrorism HQ: Read glamorous senior aide’s voracious text messages, itemized ‘trophies’ . . . and her utterly shameless justification.” The article included Varvaro’s name and her personal pictures with Bianchi, but his name was anonymized and his face blurred, Varvaro says in the lawsuit.After the story was published, Varvaro was suspended from her Washington-based position at the Department of Homeland Security. She was then fired, and the CIA rescinded an offer of employment. “Various news and tabloid outlets republished the Daily Mail story, ensuring that this false story was viewed by millions of people around the world,” Varvaro says in the complaint.Beyond the loss of her government jobs, Varvaro says the publicity hurt her ability moving forward in employment in the public sector, the private national-security sector and academia.Bianchi did not respond to requests for comment by telephone and email by press time.She seeks unspecified presumed and actual damages for lost profits, mental anguish, distress and humiliation, as well as punitive damages. She’s represented by Karen Kelly of the Washington firm Kostelanetz LLP and by attorneys from Freedman Normand Friedland.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads