Tag: sexual harassment
Matt Schlapp

'Eye-Popping' Court Filings Reveal CPAC Sex Harassment Coverup

In January 2023, The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger exclusively reported that a former staffer for failed Georgia Senate GOP candidate Herschel Walker alleged that he'd been sexually harassed by Matt Schlapp, right-wing activist and head of the prominent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Just over one year later — although the conservative leader adamantly denies any wrongdoing — it became clear during kick-off for the organization's 50th annual conference on Wednesday, February 21, that Carlton Huffman's accusations continue to haunt Schlapp and CPAC.

On the conference's opening day, according to Sollenberger's February 22 report, "the Alexandria City Courthouse posted a batch of eye-popping new filings in the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against Schlapp—including a subpoena to a CPAC official alleged to have overseen document destruction days after the accusations were first publicly reported."

Sollenberger reports, "Three sources familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that the recently subpoenaed CPAC official—manager of strategic initiatives, Lynne Rasmussen—directly oversaw interns shredding documents in or near her office shortly after The Daily Beast published Huffman’s allegations."

He also notes:

The new complaint charged CPAC with negligent retention of an official and conspiracy. Huffman seeks a combined judgment of more than $13.5 million, with a parallel federal defamation suit against Jan. 6 fundraiser and far-right gadfly Caroline Wren. (Wren has denied any wrongdoing.)

The alleged CPAC document destruction took place soon after the first public reports of Huffman’s accusation, according to three people familiar with the matter and communications reviewed by The Daily Beast. The communications—coming from a person in the CPAC office, and written the day of the event—even provide an exact date: Jan. 11, 2023, five days after the allegations were first publicly reported.

Sollenberger adds,The court records show subpoenas to other key witnesses, as well, including CPAC officials and other alleged victims. Two young men who previously reported unwanted physical advances from Schlapp have been deposed, including in connection with an alleged incident where the conservative icon, drunk and stripped to his underwear, rubbed his crotch on a young man at a fundraising event months before the alleged assault at the center of the lawsuit."

In August, Sollenberger reported Schlapp "made an offer in March to settle the multimillion-dollar sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against him, but the proposal was rejected, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the matter."

Following several reports on the incident by Sollenberger, the CPAC leader's wife, Mercedes Schlapp, took to X (formerly Twitter) to write, "The Daily Beast is Satan’s publication to persecute Christians and their families."

Huffman followed up on the allegations "with a multimillion-dollar sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against Schlapp," his wife, and against the organization, which is set for jury trial in June, according to the Beast.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Found Guilty Of Sexually Harassing Interns, Tennessee GOP Leader Quits

Found Guilty Of Sexually Harassing Interns, Tennessee GOP Leader Quits

A Tennessee House Republican has abruptly resigned after news broke that a bipartisan ethics committee report found him guilty of sexual harassment related to complaints reportedly made by at least one female legislative intern.

Last month, an ethics subcommittee of the Tennessee House of Representatives found that Rep. Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, the vice chair of the House GOP caucus, had violated a workplace discrimination and harassment policy.

However, less than two hours after Campbell told The Tennessean that the damning finding was not a cause for resignation, lawmakers returned to the House chamber from their lunch break on Thursday to find Campbell’s desk empty.

He had resigned.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) confirmed on Thursday afternoon that Campbell — one of the Republicans who voted to expel three Democratic lawmakers who partook in a gun reform protest in the chamber — had handed in his resignation letter.

“I resign from the Tennessee House of Representatives. Effective Immediately,” stated the letter dated 2:18 p.m. that Thursday.

Campbell’s sudden departure came hours after a WTVF-TV reporter confronted him en route to Capitol Hill about allegations that he had made inappropriate comments to at least one legislative intern.

"I had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property," Campbell told the reporter, according to CNN. “I did not know that a workplace policy can be enforced when you’re not at work.”

However, according to WTVF-TV, legislative interns were typically in-state university or college students. And in an email to university officials, the victim labeled the GOP leader’s comments sickening and unreciprocated.

Campbell allegedly told the victim, who he had seen entering her apartment with another 19-year-old female intern, that “he was… imagining that we were performing sexual acts on one another” and “how it drove him crazy knowing that was happening so close to him."

"I uncomfortably explained that that was not happening, and he insisted that he knew it was and asked me to tell him about it," the victim said, per WTVF-TV.

"I explained that [the 19-year-old] is my friend, and he proceeded to describe how sexually attractive he finds her," the victim added.

In her email, the victim also reportedly recalled that Campbell demanded to know “how many men I've slept with” when she visited his apartment on March 15 to return a wrench.

"I told him zero, and he insisted that I was lying and told me not to lie. He then proceeded to ask how many women I've slept with and said he bets girls go crazy over me,” the victim’s email stated.

The victim also allegedly said she “recoiled and said I felt sick and immediately left” after Campbell “begged me for several hugs” and “then reached out his hand towards me and grabbed me around my neck.”

Campbell denied the allegations upon confrontation outside the Capitol and insisted to the WTVF-TV reporter that he “had consensual conversations that were agreed to, and I'm really surprised that we are here this morning.”

When asked what he meant by consensual conversations, Campbell replied, "Private conversations are supposed to be private.”

Campbell, a self-described “promoter of entertainment myself,” raised eyebrows earlier this year when he worried aloud on the House floor that the words “or similar entertainers” in a Republican anti-drag bill would prohibit “bra and panties” matches at county fairs.

The workplace discrimination and harassment subcommittee — comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans — investigated complaints into Campbell’s conduct, presumably by the interns, and found his actions violated the Tennessee General Assembly’s policy on workplace discrimination and harassment.

The ethics subcommittee’s March 29 report also stated that “discrimination and harassment in any form will not be tolerated” and that “no further information concerning this complaint will be released.”

WTVF-TV reported that Speaker Sexton had received a memo summarizing the subcommittee’s findings more than a week before Tennessee House Republicans expelled two of their Democratic colleagues. Yet, there were no public repercussions for Campbell.

"[Sexton] knew about it before they moved, and he pushed to expel us for talking out of turn," said Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), one of the three Tennessee Democrats who faced the expulsion vote earlier this month.

"This resignation did not come because they felt like what they did was wrong. It came out because of the news, because you brought it up in the news," Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), one of the two expelled but reinstated Democrats, told WTVF-TV.

Campbell issued a statement after his resignation, saying that he “apologize[s] to my family, my friends, and those who misunderstood my intentions” and was “proud of the good things we were able to do for Tennesseans.”

The Johnston County mayor, Larry Potter, has said that the county commission will appoint someone else to fill Campbell’s seat until a special election can be held, NewsChannel 11 has reported.

Trump Ally Alexander 'Canceled' Over Evidence He Solicited Teen Boys

Trump Ally Alexander 'Canceled' Over Evidence He Solicited Teen Boys

Ali Alexander, a pro-Trump activist and “Stop the Steal” organizer, is facing backlash after a recent cascade of allegations emerged denoting that Alexander had solicited sexual pictures from at least two teenage boys.

Pandemonium within the far-right reached a fever pitch last week when controversial right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos reportedly released screenshots of text messages that showed Alexander requesting “jack off material” from a 15-year-old.

Elaborating on the fallout further in a damning report on Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Alexander had in 2017 asked the teenager, Aidan Duncan, who is 21 years old now, for nude photos in exchange for political connections.

“You’ll have [me] sharing my entire network with you,” Alexander allegedly said in screenshots of a Snapchat conversation the Beast reviewed. The messages also reportedly showed Alexander dangle a meet-up with Yiannopoulos as a perk to Dancan — a reward Alexander said was reserved for whoever opted to be his “arm candy.”

Alexander, the Beast said, responded to a photo Duncan later sent him with an emoji of a smiling face with heart eyes and urged the teen to retain contact because “the less you deprive me of, the less I deprive you of. I’m a big sharing person unless it’s not even.”

Duncan told right-wing podcaster Richard Spencer in March 2023 that Alexander had offered to fly him to Texas to “be his intern” and asked the teen to lie to his parents about the trip to keep the affair secret.

In May 2019, Alexander allegedly took umbrage at what he said was the still underage Duncan’s inability to send him “videos” and “good jack off material,” several screenshots the Beast reviewed showed.

In a tweet last Thursday, Duncan said the interaction with Ali happened at a young age when he was “naive and desperate” and believed he had “no choice but to cooperate” with Alexander “if I wanted to make it in politics.”

In the summer of 2019, Alexander allegedly asked another teen, 17-year-old Lance Johnston, for photos of his penis in a message with the eggplant emoji, the Beast’s report also stated.

“Show me ur [eggplant emoji],” Alexander allegedly wrote to Johnston on the night of the Trump White House’s “Social Media Summit,” when then-President Donald Trump dubbed Alexander and a contingent of right-wing Twitter trolls the victims of online bias.

When Johnston asked what he meant, Alexander allegedly replied, “Omg dick,” a screenshot showed, per the Beast. Johnston told the publication that he rejected Alexander’s requests and blocked him.

Johnston also insisted to the Beast that Alexander and Nick Fuentes — a notorious far-right white supremacist, anti-Semite, and misogynist who made headlines for accompanying rapper Kanye West to break bread with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late November — had promised him “a job in politics” if he recanted the eggplant story.

When the messages first hit the airwaves, Alexander dismissed accusations of wrongdoing, saying, “You can have whatever conversation you want with someone who is 17.”

On Friday, Alexander issued a statement on his Telegram channel in which he maintained his innocence but apologized for what he called “corny pick up lines” and said he had “repented before God.”

“I apologize for any inappropriate messages sent over the years. Forgive me,” Alexander wrote, according to the Independent.

“When I’ve flirted or others have flirted with me, I’ve flexed my credentials or dropped corny pick up lines. Other times, I’ve been careless and should’ve qualified those coming up to me’s [sic] identities during flirtatious banter at the start,” Alexander said.

He insisted that nothing “unlawful” had occurred, claimed the fast-spreading images were doctored, and accused “fake accusers or literal honey pots eager to frame me” of being behind the accusations.

Alexander’s Twitter account — which had been previously banned but reinstated by Twitter boss Elon Musk in January — was suspended on Tuesday following the accusations.

Chaos on the Unhinged Right

MAGA gadfly Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a former ally with whom Alexander had long since fallen out, blasted Alexander in a tweet on Monday for his “predation of underage boys.”

Alexander accused Greene in a Monday tweet — shortly before his Twitter suspension — of intimidation and exacting revenge for a spat between the two weeks earlier.

Fuentes, who is facing accusations of covering up for Alexander, his longtime friend, declared “war” on Greene for her tweet in an audio published on Twitter by Right Wing Watch.

In addition to allegedly attacking Duncan and Johnston for “flirting with Ali” because “they thought it would advance their political careers,” Fuentes has claimed that “the real victim in this entire saga is me,” the Beast added in its report.

“Sounds like everybody involved got what they wanted,” Fuentes said. “Except me, the incel, who is now somehow being blamed for things I had nothing to do with.”

During a podcast over the weekend, Fuentes asserted Alexander had gone on a self-imposed exile and therefore deserved a breather, as reported by HuffPost.

Fuentes said. “I talked to Ali. He understands how strongly people feel — how strongly I feel — and he’s bowing out of public life. So nobody has to worry about that.”

Yiannopoulos, who resigned from his job as an editor for right-wing outlet Breitbart in 2017 over comments he made downplaying the gravity of pedophilia, told the Beast that he published the Alexander texts — and claimed to have unseen video evidence — because Alexander “used my name” to entice young men.

The Beast noted, however, that Alexander and Fuentes had allegedly worked to block Yiannopolous from a potentially lucrative role in West’s presidential campaign.

GOP Donor Accuses Lewandowski Of 'Sexually Graphic' Harassment At Vegas Fundraiser

GOP Donor Accuses Lewandowski Of 'Sexually Graphic' Harassment At Vegas Fundraiser

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

A longtime aide to former President Donald Trump is facing accusations of misconduct after allegedly inflicting brazen, repeatedly rejected sexual overtures, including physical contact, on a female Republican donor.

According to Politico, Trashelle Odom — wife of Idaho executive John Odom — is accusing Corey Lewandowski of "making unwanted sexual advances" toward her at a charity event that was held in Las Vegas, Nev., this past weekend. Odom "alleges that Lewandowski repeatedly touched her, including on her leg and buttocks, and spoke to her in sexually graphic terms" while they were at the event.A donor and longtime aide for former President Donald Trump is facing accusations after allegedly making sexual advances toward a female victim.

Speaking to Politico, Odom recounted what occurred on September 26 when she crossed paths with Lewandowski.

"On the evening of September 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada, I attended a dinner to support a charity and spend time with wonderful friends," Odom said in a statement to the publication. "He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful," she said in reference to Lewandowski.

Odom went on to explain why she is speaking out about the encounter. "I am coming forward because he needs to be held accountable," she continued. "I am blessed to have a loving husband and family behind me. I want other women to know that you can be heard, too, and together we can stop terrible things like this from happening."

Odom's attorney has also released a statement detailing his client's account. According to the attorney, Lewandowski aggressively pursued Odom as he made advances "approximately 10 times."

"Mrs. Odom stated that over the course of the dinner, Mr. Lewandowski tried to hold her hand, and she pushed his hand away. He touched her leg, and she moved it away. He grabbed her napkin off her lap and tried to touch her leg again, and she pulled her dress over her leg, to move his hand away and cover her skin," Odom's attorney wrote in the statement.

"He touched her back and she tried to get away," the statement continued. "He described an area where he was sore from a workout, on the side of his butt, but he demonstrated this by touching her there—on the upper side of her rear end. Lewandowski tried to touch her approximately 10 times, and Mrs. Odom always rebuffed him."

In wake of the latest allegations, David Chesnoff, the Las Vegas-based attorney representing Lewandowski, also released a brief statement in response to the situation. However, he did not directly address Odom's allegations. "Accusations and rumors appear to be morphing by the minute and we will not dignify them with a further response," he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Wednesday evening, the Trump apparatus announced that the former president has severed ties with Lewandowski, according to this tweet posted by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman: