GOP campaign staffer sues CPAC chief Matt Schlapp for alleged sexual assault and defamation

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Mercedes and Matt Schlapp Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

A Republican campaign worker who accused American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp of groping his crotch last October sued Schlapp and his wife, fellow Republican Mercedes Schlapp, on Tuesday for defamation and sexual violence.

The unidentified GOP campaign staffer was working for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s campaign at the time of the alleged groping. He told The Daily Beast in early January that if Matt Schlapp denied his sexual assault allegations, he would come forward and identify himself. Schlapp denied the allegation. But the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Virginia Circuit Court in Alexandra was filed anonymously.

The lawsuit accuses Schalpp of “aggressively touching” the man’s “genital area in a sustained manner” while the two were alone in a car en route to Schalpp’s hotel room in Atlanta on October 19. . The episode left the staffer “frozen with shock, mortification and fear of what was happening, especially given Mr. Schlapp’s power and status in conservative political circles,” the lawsuit said. also Mercedes Schalpp of defamation for texting neighbors saying the staff member was a ‘troubled individual’ who had been ‘fired from multiple jobs’, including for ‘lying on his CV’. that none of these allegations are true, report Politico and the New York Times.

“The Schlapp family is in unbearable pain and stress due to the false allegation of an anonymous individual,” Schlapp’s attorney Charlie Spies said in a statement. “No family should ever go through this and the Schlapps and their legal team are weighing counter-suit options.” The American Conservative Union, which leads the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), backs Schlapp.

The staff member’s attorney, Timothy Hyland, said his client ‘takes no joy in pursuing this legal action’, but Schlapp ‘has had ample time to accept responsibility and apologize for his actions. despicable”.

The story continues

Several Walker campaign officials supported the staffer’s version of events, saying he told the campaign the day after the alleged incident and was told by his supervisor not to drive Schlapp to a campaign event in Macon, as expected.

Schlapp did not show up for the Macon rally or explain why he cut his trip short, Walker’s campaign staff told Politico. And “if he had shown up at the event, we weren’t going to get him to talk,” added a senior Walker campaign official. “We were going to politely decline.”

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