Schlapp sued by accuser in groping claim

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 after 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.

In a statement, Schlapp lawyer Charlie Spies denied the allegation, saying, “The complaint is false and the Schlapp family is suffering unbearable pain and stress due to the false allegation from an anonymous individual.” He said the legal team was “assessing counter-lawsuit options.”

Timothy Hyland, a lawyer representing the staffer, declined to comment, but sent a statement from his law firm calling Schlapp a “sexual predator” who needs to be held accountable.