"I believe Donald Trump. I don't know about the nine women," Giuliani said. "I haven't studied the case." | Getty Giuliani dubious of Trump accusers

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Sunday cast doubt on women who have accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of groping or inappropriately touching them.

Giuliani, a prominent Trump surrogate, told CNN's "State of the Union" that he was inclined to believe Trump and that he had "never seen him do anything like that" in nearly three decades of knowing the real estate mogul. Trump has denounced his accusers and has said the allegations are untrue.


But when pressed by host Jake Tapper on whether he thought Trump's accusers were lying, Giuliani appeared to stop short, responding: "No, I believe my friend Donald Trump when he tells me he didn't do it."

"So, you think the nine women are lying?" prodded Tapper. "You believe Donald Trump."

"I would not say it that way. I believe Donald Trump. I don't know about the nine women," Giuliani said. "I haven't studied the case."

"I do not believe — some of these things appear to me on their face to be kind of untrue," said Giuliani, a former prosecutor.

"Fifteen minutes of groping in a first-class cabin of an airplane, it doesn't make sense," he added, referencing a specific accusation that Trump groped a woman during a first-class flight. "I have been in first class a lot, fortunately. Since I stopped being mayor, I can afford first class. I have — you see everything that goes on in first class."