A GOP strategist dropped his lawsuit centered on allegations of sexual misconduct against Matt Schlapp, the powerful chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference, on Tuesday, saying the ordeal was the result of a “misunderstanding.”
Carlton Huffman, a Republican who worked on Herschel Walker’s failed Georgia Senate campaign, first sued Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes, in January 2023. Huffman alleged in the suit that Schlapp had “groped” and “fondled” his groin without consent after an event in Atlanta in late 2022 while the pair were trying to get the former football star elected to Congress.
The suit demanded $9.4 million in damages for sexual battery and defamation. But Huffman dropped the case and apologized to the powerful Republican couple on Tuesday, with his lawyer telling Politico the trio had “resolved their differences.”
“I am discontinuing all of my lawsuits,” Huffman said in a statement through his attorneys. “The claims made in my lawsuits were the result of a complete misunderstanding, and I regret that the lawsuit caused pain to the Schlapp family.”
“The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable,” he continued, referencing his claims the couple had defamed him. “Neither the Schlapps nor the [American Conservative Union] paid me anything to dismiss my claims against them.”
Schlapp re-asserted his innocence in a statement later Tuesday, saying his family had been “attacked by a left-wing media that is focused on the destruction of conservatives regardless of the truth and the facts.”
“We also learned that the left is waging a relentless war against those of us who still hold fast to the principles of America’s founding and the liberty that has endured throughout our 248-year history,” Schlapp wrote on Twitter. “Going forward, our eyes are wide open, we understand the struggle better and we learned we must stand our ground and fight or else the haters on the left will destroy every conservative and ultimately our nation.”
Schlapp is a close ally of former President Donald Trump and also heads the American Conservative Union. His wife worked in the Trump administration and for was an aide on his failed 2020 bid for office.
A separate defamation lawsuit filed against Republican activist Caroline Wren after Huffman went forward with his allegations was also ended this week.