More accusations of gay sexual assault against CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp have arisen in a defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by the man who accused Schlapp of groping him last October.
Here’s more from Washington Post:
Officials overseeing the Conservative Political Action Conference knew about past accusations of sexual misconduct by chairman Matt Schlapp but failed to investigate or remove him from his powerful post, an amended sexual battery and defamation lawsuit claims.
In one alleged incident, during a fundraising trip to South Florida in early 2022, Schlapp was accused of stripping to his underwear and rubbing against another person without his consent, according to the filing. In 2017, at a CPAC after-party, Schlapp attempted to kiss an employee against his wishes, the lawsuit claims.
In both cases, according to the suit, the alleged victims reported the unwanted advances to staffers at CPAC’s parent organization, the American Conservative Union, but no action was taken against Schlapp, a longtime Republican power broker and prominent backer of former president Donald Trump.
The new allegations were added one week ago to a lawsuit filed in January by a former Republican campaign staffer, Carlton Huffman, who accused Schlapp of groping him in October 2022. The alleged additional victims are not identified and are not joining the suit; the court filing says their allegations were obtained through the discovery process.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Schlapp, on Friday disputed the claims and attacked Huffman’s credibility.
“These demonstrably false allegations are a continuation of transparent and desperate tactics,” he said, adding that Huffman is trying to “to bolster his spurious claims and taint potential jurors.”
An ACU spokesperson referred to Corallo for comment. Schlapp’s attorney, Benjamin Chew, did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
I wouldn’t surprise me if all of this turns out to be true. There certainly appears to be a lot of smoke…