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Right-wing activist and lobbyist Matt Schlapp, the embattled chairman of the political organization that hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), avoided a reporter’s questions Thursday about a male Republican campaign operative’s sexual assault allegations against him, and ultimately was pulled away by his arm rather than face the questions.
The Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia tried to get Schlapp to respond to the claims by the man who at the time was an aide to the Herschel Walker campaign. He is reportedly suing Schlapp in a $9.4 million battery, defamation, and conspiracy lawsuit after the CPAC leader refused to admit to allegations he was “aggressively fondling” the man’s “genital area in a sustained fashion” while he was driving Schlapp to his hotel.
In the video (below), Garcia can be heard saying to Schlapp, “What’s your response to the allegation –” but then a woman interjects, asking, “How’s your wife?”
“She’s great,” Schlapp responds.
Seconds later, as Schlapp walks away from reporters, Garcia again asks, “Mr. Schlapp, what’s your response to the allegations against you at this moment?”
Schlapp ignores the question, and continues to walk away.
A man then says loudly, “You need to drop it, it’s false, it’s fake news.”
Garcia again asks Schlapp for his response. At that point another man grabs Schlapp’s arm and pulls him away.
In January, The New York Times reported the lawsuit “also accuses Mr. Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who served as Mr. Trump’s White House director of strategic communications, of defamation and conspiracy, claiming that they coordinated a campaign to discredit the Walker aide and his allegations.”
In a video recorded just after the alleged assault the man says, “Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length, and I’m sitting there thinking what the hell is going on, that this person is literally doing this to me.”
Watch Schlapp below or at this link.
Here is Matt Schlapp avoiding my question about the allegations against him. pic.twitter.com/M5bqixKMUx
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) March 2, 2023
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