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Male Staffer Sues Matt Schlapp for $9 Million – Lawsuit Alleges ‘Sexual Battery’ After ‘Aggressively Fondling’ Groin Area
A longtime Republican political aide in his 30’s is now suing Matt Schlapp for $9.4 million in a lawsuit that accuses the well-known head of the company that produces the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) of “aggressively fondling” the man’s “genital area in a sustained fashion” while the two were alone in a car, The New York Times reports.
The Daily Beast reports the staffer is suing “for battery, defamation, and conspiracy.”
“In a letter, the staffer’s attorney, Tim Hyland of Hyland Law, called Schlapp a ‘sexual predator,'” The Daily Beast adds.
“Mr. Schlapp has not directly denied our client’s allegations, and with good reason—they are unmistakably true, and corroborated by extensive contemporaneous evidence,” the letter reportedly reads. “We intend to keep a singular focus: to demonstrate that Matt Schlapp is a sexual predator who assaulted our client.”
“The lawsuit, which the staffer’s attorneys filed Tuesday in the circuit court of Alexandria, Virginia, accuses Schlapp of ‘sexual battery’ after ‘aggressively fondling’ his ‘genital area in a sustained fashion’ while the staffer drove Schlapp home from an evening of drinks at Atlanta bars in October,” The Daily Beast adds.
Schlapp on Tuesday again used an attorney’s statement to declare the allegations he “groped” and “fondled” the male staffer’s crotch without consent after buying him drinks at two different bars are “false.” Schlapp has appeared on camera several times since the allegations were first reported nearly two weeks ago, including with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
“This anonymous complaint demonstrates the accuser’s real agenda, working in concert with Daily Beast to attack and harm the Schlapp family,” a statement posted to Schlapp’s Twitter account on Tuesday reads. It is signed, “Charlie Spies, Counsel to Matt & Mercy Schlapp.”
READ MORE: New Texts Show Staffer Allegedly Groped by Matt Schlapp Contacted Friend in Real Time: CNN
The statement goes on to say, “The complaint is false, and the Schlapp family is suffering unbearable pain and stress due to the false allegation from an anonymous individual. No family should ever go through this, and the Schlapps and their legal team are assessing counter-lawsuit options.”
The man, a staffer at the time for the Herschel Walker campaign, had said if Schlapp does not admit the allegations and step down as head of the American Conservative Union, he would come forward using his real name.
The New York Times reports the lawsuit “also accuses Mr. Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who served as Mr. Trump’s White House director of strategic communications, of defamation and conspiracy, claiming that they coordinated a campaign to discredit the Walker aide and his allegations.”
The Times notes that the “staff member filed the suit anonymously, citing privacy concerns and a fear of retaliation given Mr. Schlapp’s influential position as chairman of the American Conservative Union.”
When The Daily Beast’s report was published, it also included a statement from Schlapp’s attorney, Charlie Spies.
There appears to be little difference between the two statements.
Spies “called the allegations an ‘attack’ and said Schlapp ‘denies any improper behavior,'” The Daily Beast reported on January 5 in a story that was updated hours later on January 6.
“This appears to be now the twelfth Daily Beast piece with personal attacks on Matt Schlapp and his family,” Schlapp’s attorney’s statement also said. “The attack is false and Mr. Schlapp denies any improper behavior. We are evaluating legal options for response.”
Mediaite first reported the latest statement from Schlapp’s attorney, claiming Schlapp “broke his silence on Tuesday to deny allegations he sexually assaulted a male staffer working on Herschel Walker’s Senate run.”
Last week CNN, describing the man as a GOP strategist, published text messages purportedly between Schlapp and the man who says he was “groped” and “fondled” by Schlapp.
As The Daily Beast reported, the staffer recorded contemporaneous videos detailing what he says happened once he got home after driving Schlapp back to his hotel.
That man “recorded a series of tearful video accounts detailing the evening, which he shared with The Daily Beast as well as with two people close to him, including the staffer’s wife.”
“’What is wrong with me? This is OK to happen?’ he said in one of the videos. ‘I don’t know what I did. It’s very sad that this is OK.'”
“In another video,” The Daily Beast’s report continues, “the staffer narrated the events ‘in regard to Matthew Schlapp, chairman of CPAC, who approximately two hours ago put his hands on me in a sustained and unsolicited and unwanted manner.'”
“’Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length, and I’m sitting there thinking what the hell is going on, that this person is literally doing this to me,’ the staffer said in the video.”
“’From the bar to the Hilton Garden Inn, he has his hands on me. And I feel so fucking dirty. I feel so fucking dirty,’ he said.”
CNN last week added more details to The Daily Beast’s report, including stating that that the unnamed staffer “says he is coming forward to discuss the alleged incident because he wants to prevent someone else from being victimized. The staffer is also motivated, by what he described as CPAC’s hypocrisy in hosting guests hostile to LGBTQ rights.”
“The staffer says he called and texted friends in real time to tell them what happened,” the CNN report reads, noting that it “reviewed a text exchange between the staffer and a friend in politics, where the staffer is clearly upset and wondering how to tell the campaign that one of their surrogates had allegedly assaulted him. The exchange is being made public for the first time.”
“’He’s pissed I didn’t follow him to his hotel room,’ the staffer wrote,” according to a CNN video report.
“’I’m so sorry man,’ the acquaintance responded. ‘What a f**king creep.’”
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.
“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”
Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.
“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.
The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.
“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”
While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.
READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post
Image via Reuters
The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.
“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.
“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.
He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”
Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”
Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”
Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.
The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.
Image via Reuters
Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.
“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.
His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Some ridiculed the president.
“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.
Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”
Image via Reuters
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