Christian Ziegler, the former Republican Party of Florida chairman ousted after an accusation of rape by the woman he and his wife engaged in a three-way sexual relationship with, is invoking a law meant to protect victims of crimes.
Ziegler’s wife Bridget is the co-founder of the far-right anti-LGBTQ organization Moms for Liberty, reportedly a best friend of Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, a county school board member, and an author of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law.
The couple “are fighting the release of information from Christian Ziegler’s cell phone that was obtained by the Sarasota Police Department as part of its investigation into a sexual assault allegation against Christian Ziegler,” the Herald-Tribune reports.
“We request that you take all steps necessary to ensure that no data or information from Mr. Ziegler’s cellphone is released to the public,’ attorney Matthew Sarelson wrote to Sarasota City Attorney Robert Fournier,” the paper added. “Sarelson offers several arguments for why the records shouldn’t be released, including that Christian Ziegler is ‘protected’ by Marsy’s Law, a 2018 amendment to the Florida Constitution to protect crime victims.”
READ MORE: ‘Each Person’ Will ‘Serve’ Jesus: Embattled Republican’s Christian Nationalism Revealed
Ziegler is no longer facing possible rape charges after police said they determined video he secretly recorded of his sexual encounter with the other woman, not his wife Bridget, likely supported his claim it was consensual. But he is still facing possible charges related to video voyeurism.
On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported Christian Ziegler had told his wife to “hunt” for women to further their ménage à trois sexual lifestyle.
“Documents from the rape probe, reported in outlets including the Florida Trident and Sarasota Herald-Tribune, show the Zieglers discussing the accuser via text message, with Bridget sharing worries about the woman’s well-being,” The Daily Beast reported. “Detectives also found a list on Ziegler’s phone, titled ‘THE LIST,’ with the names of multiple women including his rape accuser under a subheading of ‘Fuck.’”
READ MORE: ‘You Bend the Knee to the Orange Jesus’: Democrat Blasts House Republicans in Fiery Takedown
“In text messages from February 2021, Christian told Bridget to ‘come home, stop and pick up [a woman] to play again and be crazy.’ It appears he was referring to his rape accuser, whom he then said ‘was an alcoholic, nice person with some issues.'”
“Christian suggested the couple ‘needed to hunt for someone new,’ cops stated.”
But according to The Daily Beast, “new records allege that Christian told detectives he had consensual sex with the woman ‘approximately one dozen times since they met’ and that they’d engaged in a threesome with Bridget twice at his home.”
Some previous reports appeared to suggest the threesome sex had had occurred only once.
“Meanwhile, the victim told police that Christian ‘had been sexually battering her for years, and she never felt like she could say no to him,’ including one time when he climbed through an unlocked window in her residence.”