Carlton Huffman, the man who accused Conservative Political Action Conference President Matt Schlapp of unwanted sexual advances, dropped his lawsuit and apologized, a representative for Mr. Schlapp said Tuesday.
Mr. Huffman filed a lawsuit last year against Mr. Schlapp, who he said groped him in a car while he was working for Republican Herschel Walker’s 2022 Senate campaign in Georgia.
Mr. Huffman sought $9.4 million in damages for what he claimed were unwanted sexual advances by Mr. Schlapp and defamation by Mr. Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who is a Republican Party operative and former official in the Trump White House.
The Schlapps steadfastly denied all of the charges. Mr. Huffman has dropped the cases entirely.
“We have resolved our differences,” Mr. Huffman told The Washington Times.
In a statement provided to The Times by Mark Corallo, a representative for Mr. Schlapp, Mr. Huffman also apologized for the lawsuit.
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“I am discontinuing all of my lawsuits. 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 statement said. “The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable.”
Mr. Huffman also said in the statement that neither the Schlapps nor CPAC “paid me anything” to dismiss the claims.
Mr. Huffman’s efforts to sue the Schlapps anonymously were rejected by a judge and after his name was disclosed, two women accused him of sexually assaulting them at a house they rented together in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Huffman denied assaulting the women.
Mr. Huffman’s claims against Mr. Schlapp brought a wave of negative news stories about the Schlapps and CPAC, which hosts one of the most influential conservative confabs in the country.
In a statement, Mr. Schlapp accused the left of waging a war against him through the liberal-leaning, mainstream media.
“From the beginning, I asserted my innocence. Our family was attacked, especially by a left-wing media that is focused on the destruction of conservatives regardless of the truth and the facts,” Mr. Schlapp said. “But we emerge from this ordeal stronger as husband and wife, stronger as parents to our five daughters, stronger as friends to those who stood by us. Our faith in God sustained us. Our understanding of what is truly important in life – our faith in God and loving our family and friends – has been brought into sharp focus as never before.”
Mr. Schlapp’s lawyer, Ben Chew, said in a statement the Schlapps could “seek vindication” against those who leaked negative, false information against the couple and “agenda-driven media who appeared all too eager to destroy conservatives like the Schlapps.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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