The former Herschel Walker staffer who came forward to The Daily Beast earlier this month to detail a sexual assault allegation against conservative icon Matt Schlapp is now suing the powerful chairman of the American Conservative Union—for battery, defamation, and conspiracy.
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 complaint also accuses Schlapp—as well as his wife, conservative commentator and former Trump White House communications adviser, Mercedes Schlapp—of defamation, citing efforts to “impugn” the accuser’s character in response to media reports of the allegation. It further alleges a conspiracy count where the couple worked to denigrate the accuser with the help of conservative fundraiser Caroline Wren, who has acted as a representative for the Schlapps in the matter.
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The lawsuit claims that Schlapp, who oversees the Conservative Political Action Conference, made "repeated unsolicited and undesired advances" toward the campaign staffer for Herschel Walker. The staffer previously told The Daily Beast that Schlapp "groped" his crotch while he drove the conservative organizer back to his hotel after a day of campaign events.
The staffer filed the lawsuit under the alias of “John Doe,” citing privacy concerns and fear of retaliation. He has vowed to come forward with his real name should Schlapp deny the allegations.
But according to the complaint, the retaliation is already underway. The lawsuit cites text messages Mercedes Schlapp sent to a “neighborhood group chat or text,” where she called the staffer a “troubled individual” who had been fired “for lying and lying on his resume”—a claim the lawsuit says is untrue and defamatory.
The complaint also cites a series of tweets from Wren, who orchestrated high-dollar fundraising efforts behind the Jan. 6 rally. In those tweets, Wren outed the accuser by name following media reports in which he chose to remain anonymous out of privacy concerns. She accused him of being fired from campaigns because he was a “habitual liar"—claims the lawsuit also says are false and defamatory.
The lawsuit seeks a total of $9.4 million in damages: $3.85 million against Schlapp for the alleged assault, $1.85 million from both Schlapp and his wife for the alleged defamation, and an additional $1.85 million from the couple for the conspiracy charge—and "such other and further relief as the Court may deem appropriate."
The New York Times first reported the lawsuit Wednesday afternoon.
In a letter, the staffer’s attorney, Tim Hyland of Hyland Law, called Schlapp a “sexual predator.”
“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 read.
“We intend to keep a singular focus: to demonstrate that Matt Schlapp is a sexual predator who assaulted our client,” the letter also said.
Schlapp, for his part, once again indirectly denied the allegations through a lawyer.
“This anonymous complaint demonstrates the accuser's real agenda, working in concert with [The] Daily Beast to attack and harm the Schlapp family," a statement from Schlapp's lawyer, Charlie Spies, read. "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.”
But to the Schlapps, the accuser is not anonymous. They know his identity, a fact the lawsuit further evinces in their alleged smear campaign against him.
The staffer’s account has now been independently confirmed by NBC News and CNN since The Daily Beast first reported on it on Jan. 5. The lawsuit says The Daily Beast “accurately recounted, in all material aspects, the facts surrounding Mr. Schlapp’s sexual battery of Mr. Doe.”
