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A staffer who worked for Herschel Walker’s Republican Senate campaign filed a lawsuit against prominent conservative activist Matt Schlapp on Tuesday, accusing Schlapp of groping him during a car ride in Georgia before last year’s midterm election.
Schlapp denies the allegation, and his lawyer says they are considering a countersuit.
The staffer’s battery and defamation lawsuit was filed in Alexandria Circuit Court in Virginia, where Schlapp lives, and seeks more than $9 million in damages.
It accuses Schlapp of “aggressively fondling” the staffer’s “genital area in a sustained fashion” while the staffer was driving Schlapp back to his hotel from a bar in October the day of a Walker campaign event. The allegations were first reported earlier this month by The Daily Beast.
The staffer filed the lawsuit anonymously as “John Doe,” citing his status as an alleged sexual assault victim and fearing backlash from supporters of Schlapp, a longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump and chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The lawsuit also accuses Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes, who served in Trump’s White House as director of strategic communications, of defamation and conspiracy, citing Matt Schlapp’s repeated denials of the claims and alleged attempts by both to discredit the staffer.
In a statement, Schlapp lawyer Charlie Spies accused the staffer of trying to harm the Schlapp family.
