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