CPAC chair Matt Schlapp cleared of sexual assault allegations as accuser recants, apologizes

The Republican political activist who had accused Matt Schlapp, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) chair, of sexual assault has dropped his case.

40-year-old Carlton Huffman had alleged without proof that during a 2022 election trip while Huffman worked for the Herschel Walker Senate campaign in Georgia, Schlapp groped him, according to the Washington Examiner.

Huffman has initially sought to pursue a $9 million lawsuit anonymously. A judge said that he could not, and Huffman revealed himself publicly in 2023.

"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," Huffman said in a statement provided to Mark Corallo, Schlapp’s representative.

"The Schlapps have advised that the statements made about me were the result of a misunderstanding, which was regrettable. Neither the Schlapps nor the [American Conservative Union] paid me anything to dismiss my claims against them," he added.

Huffman, in dropping his case against Schlapp, also dropped his cases against CPAC, the American Conservative Union, Schlapp’s wife Mercedes Schlapp, and Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser and Schlapp ally who named Huffman on X when the case first surfaced.

Schlapp, who has denied the charges since the beginning, told the Washington Examiner, "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. 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."

"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 added. "The left no longer leaves disagreements on the political battlefield. Increasingly, they have gained a stranglehold on the mainstream media, social media and the legal system which they use to try to silence, shame and bankrupt Americans who have contrary, yet correct viewpoints."

After making his claims against Schlapp, two women came forward and accused Huffman himself of assault.