A lawsuit was filed by an nameless accuser Tuesday towards Matt Schlapp and his spouse Mercedes, two distinguished Republican insiders in Washington, DC, alleging sexual battery and defamation. The two are a conservative energy couple on the intersection between conventional motion conservatism and the MAGA wing of the GOP.
The lawsuit originates from October 2022, when Schlapp allegedly groped and propositioned a male staffer on Herschel Walker’s Senate marketing campaign whereas showing at occasions for the Georgia Republican. The incident, first reported by the Daily Beast, was promptly reported to senior officers on the Walker marketing campaign, which Vox has been capable of affirm.
The lawsuit not solely targets Schlapp for what’s described as “aggressively fondling [the plaintiff’s] genital area in a sustained manner,” however for what it describes as an organized effort by Schlapp and his spouse to discredit and defame the accuser. The lawsuit additionally alleges that the accuser was defamed by Charlie Spies, Schlapp’s lawyer, and Caroline Wren, a Republican operative concerned within the notorious January 6, 2021, rally in Washington, DC, along with the Schlapps. The lawsuit features a textual content that Mercedes Schlapp despatched to a neighborhood group chat that falsely described the accuser as “a troubled individual who has been fired for lying.”
Who is Matt Schlapp?
Schlapp is on the middle of the conservative institution in Washington. The former political director within the George W. Bush White House, in 2014 he turned head of the American Conservative Union (ACU), the right-wing group that places on the annual, extremely influential Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) convention. Schlapp’s prominence grew in the course of the Trump administration when he turned a vocal ally of the previous president, showing frequently on Fox News, and Mercedes Schlapp turned a high staffer contained in the Trump White House. At the identical time, Schlapp, a father of 5, maintained an lively lobbying presence via his agency Cove Strategies and raked in thousands and thousands in the course of the Trump administration. As authors Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng described them in their critically acclaimed guide Sinking within the Swamp, “the Schlapps have carved out a niche for themselves as a Trump-era power couple, wielding influence in the president’s inner circle and translating that influence into lucrative lobbying deals.”
Why does he matter?
Schlapp issues due to the ACU and CPAC. There are lots of well-connected Republicans contained in the Beltway, and definitely various Trump allies, who’ve tried to leverage their connections with the previous president into changing into proper wing media personalities. But what separates Schlapp out of your common Tom, Dick, or Seb Gorka is his management over CPAC. The convention is the annual measuring stick of the conservative motion’s id and has adopted the right’s drift into Trumpism as figures as soon as banned from the convention as extremists now are featured audio system. It’s the place that establishment politicians seem when they should woo conservatives and the place conservative politicians present as much as get seen.
CPAC is also a profit-making middle the place sponsors attempt to get the conservative motion to embrace their coverage targets. In the Trump period, conventional company sponsors have backed away for extra MAGA-inclined teams and corporations. The fights over what matters are and aren’t mentioned at CPAC are heated. Most lately, conventional social conservatives complained that abortion had been sidetracked in favor of MAGAworld favorites like focusing on huge tech and “wokeism.”
Finally, CPAC is a scene. It attracts Republican officeholders, aspiring officeholders, operatives, consultants, grifters, and simply plain weirdos from throughout the nation. It’s a spot the place attendees present up dressed as George Washington, a disgraced Congress member has a sizzling tub get together, and the place lots of the sausage-making of Washington networking will get achieved. While different conservative teams like TPUSA have held buzzier occasions with high-profile audio system as nicely, CPAC nonetheless maintains a novel convening energy on the suitable.
The go well with raises questions on whether or not Schlapp will be capable to retain his extremely distinguished function as head of the ACU and comes solely weeks earlier than CPAC’s annual convention in early March, which generally attracts worldwide consideration. The convention has partnered with conservative LGBT teams previously, like GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans, though it additionally hosted audio system like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who denounced same-sex marriage on stage finally 12 months’s convention in Texas.
What occurs now
In an announcement to Vox, Tim Hyland, a lawyer for the accuser, mentioned: “Our consumer is the sufferer of a sexual assault by Mr. Schlapp … Mr. Schlapp has indirectly denied our consumer’s allegations and with good cause — they’re unmistakably true and corroborated by intensive contemporaneous proof. Instead, he has via his associates and associates began a whisper marketing campaign and leveled social media assaults spreading lies about our consumer.
“We intend to keep a singular focus to demonstrate that Matt Schlapp is a sexual predator who assaulted our client. Because Mr. Schlapp has refused to own up to his behavior, this suit aims to make Mr. Schlapp and those who lie for him accountable for their actions.” The go well with asks for no less than $9.4 million in damages.
In a assertion posted by Schlapp on Twitter, Spies mentioned: “This anonymous complaint demonstrates the accuser’s real agenda, working in concert with [the] Daily Beast to attack and harm the Schlapp family. 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.”
Neither Schlapp nor Spies responded to follow-up requests for remark from Vox.
