New text messages bolster sexual assault claim against CPAC head Matt Schlapp

A Republican campaign strategist who came forward last week with allegations that American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp made unwanted sexual advances on him last October has provided some new contemporaneous text messages to CNN. The GOP staffer, who was working on Herschel Walker's Senate campaign at the time, told The Daily Beast that Schlapp had fondled his genitals as he was driving Schlapp back to his hotel after business drinks. Schlapp invited him up to his hotel room, the staffer said, and he declined and left quickly.

"He's pissed I didn't follow him to his hotel room," the staffer wrote a friend who's also in politics after the alleged encounter, according to text messages shared with CNN. "I'm so sorry man," the friend responded. "What a f--king creep." The staffer then asked for advice on how to tell his supervisors on the Walker campaign that their "surrogate fondled my junk without my consent."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.